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ESSAYS OF 
FRANCIS BACON 



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OR COUNSELS 

CIVIL & MORAL 

of 

FRANCIS BACON 




INDIANAPOLIS 
THE BOBBS-MERRILL COMPANY 

PUBLISHERS 











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THS. LIBRAfiV OF < 

lAdTO CHlDiSS ffCSKSlVGd > 

SfcP. PS 1905 



1/^ 



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COPYRIGHT, 1905, BY 
THE BOBBS MERRILL COMPANY. 



CONTENTS 



ESSAYS; OR, COUNSELS CIVIL AND MORAL 



NUMBER 










PAGE 


I 


Of Truth . . . 
Of Death . . . 


1625; 
161 2; 






„ 


II 


enlarged 1625 . 


.* \ 


1 
II 


III 


Of Unity in Reli- 




Of Religion 161 2; re- 






gion . . . 




written 1625 . 


. 


14 


IV 


Of Revenge . 
Of Adversity . 
Of Simulation and 


1625; 
1625; 






21 


V 






23 


VI 








Dissimulation . 
Of Parents and 


1625; 






25 


VII 








Children 


1612; 


enlarged 1625 • 


. 


30 


VIII 


Of Marriage and 












Single Life . 


1612; 


slightly enlarged 


1625 


33 


IX 


Of Envy . . . 


1625; 





. 


36 


X 


Of Love . . . 


1612; 


rewritten 1625 . 


. 


43 


XI 


Of Great Place . 


1612; 


slightly enlarged 


1625 


46 


XII 


Of Boldness . . 
Of Goodness, and 


1625; 






51 


XIII 








Goodness of Na- 












ture .... 


1612; 


enlarged 1 625 . 


. 


54 


XIV 


Of Nobility . . 


1612; 


rewritten 1625 . 


. . 


58 


XV 


Of Seditions and 












Troubles 
Of Atheism . . 


1625; 
1612; 






61 


XVI 


slightly enlarged 


1625 


71 


XVII 


Of Superstition 


1612; 


tf ft 


(( 


75 


XVIII 


Of Travel . . 


1625; 




, 


78 


XIX 


Of Empire 


1612; 
3 


much enlarged 1 6 25 


82 



4 CONTENTS 

NUMBER PAOE 

XX Of Counsels . l6l2; enlarged 1625 . . 89 

XXI Of Delays .1625; 96 

XXII Of Cunning . l6l2; rewritten 1625 , . 98 

XXIII Of wisdom for 

a Man's Self 1612; enlarged 1625 . . . 104 

XXIV Of Innovations 1625; 107 

XXV Of Dispatch . 1612; 109 

XXVI Of Seeming 

Wise . . 1612; 112 

XXVII Of Friendship. 161 2; rewritten 1625 . .114 
XXVIII Of Expense . 1597; enlarged 1612; and 

again 1625 . . .125 
XXIX Of the true 
Greatness of 
Kingdoms and 

Estates . . 1612; enlarged 1625 . . .127 
XXX Of Regimen of 

Health . . 1597; enlarged 161 2; again 

1625 141 

XXXI Of Suspicion . 1625; 144 

XXXII Of Discourse 1597; slightly enlarged 1612; 

again 1625 . . .146 

XXXIII Of Plantations 1625; 149 

XXXIV Of Riches . 1612; much enlarged 1625 . 154 
XXXV Of Prophecies 1625; 1 59 

XXXVI Of Ambition . 161 2; enlarged 1625 . . .164 
XXXVII Of Masks and 

Triumphs . 1625; ........ 167 

XXXVIII Of Nature in 

Men . . . 1612; enlarged 1625 . . . 170 
XXXIX Of Custom and 

Education .1612; " ** . . . '^73 

XL Of Fortune . 1612; slightly enlarged 1625. 176 



CO 



XLI 
XLII 

XLIII 

XLIV 

XLV 

XLVI 

XLVII 



Of Usury . 
Of Youth 

Age . . . 
Of Beauty 
Of Deformity 
Of Building . 
Of Gardens . 
Of Negotiating 



NTENTS 
1625; . . . 



and 



XLVIII Of Followers and 

Friends . 

XLIX Of Suitors . . 

L Of Studies . . 

LI Of Faction . . 

LII Of Ceremonies . 

and Respects . 

LIII Of Praise . . . 

LIV Of Vainglory . . 

LV Of Honor and 

Reputation . 

LVI Of Judicature 
LVII Of Anger . . . 
LVIir Of the Vicissi- 
tude of Things 



5 

TAGK 

179 



1612; slightly enlarged 1625 . 18^' 

1612; " " " . 188 

161 2; somewhat altered 1625 190 

1625; 192 

1625; 198 

1597; enlarged 161 2; very 

slightly altered 1625 208 

1597; slightly enlarged 1625 211 

1597; enlarged 1625 . . . 214 

1597; " "... 217 

1597; much enlarged 1625 . 220 

1597; enlarged 1625 , . . 223 
1612; *' "... 226 
1612; 229 

1597; omitted 161 2; repub- 
lished 1625 . . . 232 

161 2; . 235 

1625; 241 



1625; 



244 



APPENDIX TO ESSAYS 

I Fragment of an Essay of Fame 253 

II Of a King 256 

III An Essay on Death 260 




ESSAYS 




I_OF TRUTH 

HAT is truth ? said jesting 
Pilate; and would not stay 
for an answer. Certainly, 
there be that delight in 
giddiness; and count it a 
bondage to fix a belief; 
affecting freewill in think- 
ing as well as in acting. 
And though the sects of 
philosophers of that kind be gone, yet there remain 
certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, 
though there be not so much blood in them as was in 
those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty 
and labor which men take in finding out of truth, 
nor again, that, when it is found, it imposeth upon 
men's thoughts, that doth bring lies in favor; but a 
natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of 
the later schools of the Grecians examineth the 

7 



8 BACON'S ESSAYS 

matter, and is at a stand to think what should be in 
it that men should love lies; where neither they make 
for pleasure, as with poets; nor for advantage, as 
with the merchant, but for the lie's sake. But I 
can not tell: this same truth is a naked and open 
daylight, that doth not show the masks, and mum- 
meries, and triumphs of the world half so stately 
and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps 
come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by 
day, but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or 
carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A 
mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any 
man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's 
minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valua- 
tions, imaginations as one would, and the like, but 
it would leave the minds of a number of men poor 
shrunken things, full of melancholy and indisposi- 
tion, and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the 
fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum dcBmo- 
num, because it filleth the imagination, and yet it 
is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie 
that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sink- 
eth in, and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as 
we spake of before. But howsoever these things are 
thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, 
yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that 
the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or 
wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the 



OF TRUTH 9 

presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the 
enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. 
The first creature of God, in the works of the days, 
was the hght of the sense; the last was the light of 
reason; and His Sabbath work, ever since, is the 
illumination of His Spirit. First, He breathed light 
upon the face of the matter, or chaos; then He 
breathed light into the face of man; and still He 
breatheth and inspireth light into the face of His 
chosen. The poet that beautified the sect, that was 
otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently 
well: "It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore, and 
to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand 
in the window of a castle, and to see a battle, and 
the adventures thereof below; but no pleasure is 
comparable to the standing upon the vantage- 
ground of truth" (a hill not to be commanded, and 
where the air is always clear and serene), "and to 
see the errors, and wanderings, and mists, and 
tempests, in the vale below;" so always that this 
prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. 
Certainly it is Heaven upon earth, to have a man's 
mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn 
upon the poles of truth. 

To pass from theological and philosophical truth 
to the truth of civil business, it will be acknowledged 
even by those that practise it not, that clear and 
round dealing is the honor of man's nature, and that 



10 BACON'S ESSAYS 

mixture of falsehood is like alloy in coin of gold and 
silver, which may make the metal work the better, 
but it embaseth it. For these winding and crooked 
courses are the goings of the serpent ; which goeth 
basely upon the belly, and not upon the feet. There 
is no vice that doth so cover a man with shame, as 
to be found false and perfidious; and therefore 
Montaigne saith prettily, when he inquired the 
reason why the word of the lie should be such a 
disgrace, and such an odious charge: saith he, 
"If it be well weighed, to say that a man lieth, is 
as much as to say that he is brave towards God and 
a coward towards men. For a lie faces God, and 
shrinks from man;" surely, the wickedness of false- 
hood and breach of faith can not possibly be so 
highly expressed, as in that it shall be the last peal 
to call the judgments of God upon the generations 
of men: it being foretold, that, when "Christ 
cometh," He shall not "find faith upon the earth." 



II — OF DEATH 

Men fear death as children fear to go in the dark; 
and as that natural fear in children is increased 
with tales, so is the other. Certainly, the con- 
templation of death, as the wages of sin and passage 
to another world, is holy and religious; but the fear 
of it, as a tribute due unto nature, is weak. Yet in 
religious meditations there is sometimes mixture 
of vanity and of superstition. You shall read in 
some of the friars' books of mortification, that a 
man should think with himself, what the pain is, 
if he have but his finger's end pressed or tortured; 
and thereby imagine what the pains of death are, 
when the whole body is corrupted and dissolved; 
when many times death passeth with less pain than 
the torture of a limb, for the most vital parts are 
not the quickest of sense. And by him that spake 
only as a philosopher and natural man, it was well 
said, " Pompa mortis magis terret, quam mors ipsa." 
Groans and convulsions, and a discolored face, and 
friends weeping, and blacks and obsequies, and 
the like, show death terrible. It is worthy the ob- 
serving, that there is no passion in the mind of 
man so weak, but it mates and masters the fear 
of death; and therefore death is no such terrible 

TI 



12 BACON'S ESSAYS 

enemy when a man hath so many attendants about 
him that can win the combat of him. Revenge 
triumphs over death; love slights it; honor aspireth 
to it; grief flieth to it; fear preoccupateth it; nay, 
we read, after Otho, the emperor, had slain him- 
self, pity (which is the tenderest of affections) pro- 
voked many to die out of mere compassion to their 
sovereign, and as the truest sort of followers. 
Nay, Seneca adds niceness and satiety: " Cogtta 
quamdiu eadem jeceris; mori velle, non tantum for- 
tis, aut miser, sed etiam fastidiosus potest." A 
man would die, though he were neither valiant nor 
miserable, only upon a weariness to do the same 
thing so oft over and over. It is no less worthy 
to observe, how little alteration in good spirits the 
approaches of death make: for they appear to be 
the same men till the last instant. Augustus Caesar 
died in a compliment: " Livia, conjugii nostri 
memor, vive et vale." Tiberius in dissimulation, 
as Tacitus saith of him, "Jam Tiherium vires et 
corpus, non dissimulatio, deserehant:" Vespasian 
in a jest, sitting upon the stool, '■'■Ut puto Deus fio;" 
Galba with a sentence, "Fen, si ex re sit populi 
Romani," holding forth his neck; Septimus Severus 
in despatch, "Adeste, si quid mihi restat agendum," 
and the like. Certainly, the Stoics bestowed too 
much cost upon death, and by their great prepara- 
tions made it appear more fearful. Better, saith 



OF DEATH 13 

he, ^^ qui finem vitce extremum inter munera ponit 
naturce." It is as natural to die as to be born; 
and to a little infant, perhaps, the one is as pain- 
ful as the other. He that dies in an earnest pursuit, 
is like one that is wounded in hot blood, who, for 
the time, scarce feels the hurt; and therefore a 
mind fixed and bent upon somewhat that is good, 
doth avert the dolors of death; but, above all, be- 
lieve it, the sweetest canticle is "Nunc dimittis,'' 
when a man hath obtained worthy ends and ex- 
pectations. Death hath this also, that it openeth 
the gate to good fame, and extinguisheth envy: 
'* Extinctus amahttur idem." 



Ill — OF UNITY IN RELIGION 

Religion being the chief band of human society, 
it is a happy thing when itself is well contained within 
the true band of unity. The quarrels and divisions 
about religion were evils unknown to the heathen. 
The reason was, because the religion of the heathen 
consisted rather in rites and ceremonies, than in 
any constant belief; for you may imagine what 
kind of faith theirs was, when the chief doctors 
and fathers of their church were the poets. But 
the true God hath this attribute, that he is a jealous 
God; and therefore his worship and religion will 
endure no mixture nor partner. We shall there- 
fore speak a few words concerning the unity of the 
church: what are the fruits thereof; what the bounds; 
and what the means. 

The fruits of unity (next unto the well-pleasing 
of God, which is all in all), are two; the one to- 
wards those that are without the church, the other 
towards those that are within. For the former, 
it is certain that heresies and schisms are, of all 
others, the greatest scandals, yea, more than cor- 
ruption of manners; for as in the natural body a 
wound or solution of continuity is worse than a 
corrupt humor, so in the spiritual; so that nothing 

H 



OF UNITY IN RELIGION 15 

doth so much keep men out of the church, and 
drive men out of the church, as breach of unity; 
and therefore, whensoever it cometh to that pass 
that one saith, '^ Ecce tn Deserto" another saith, 
'' Ecce in penetrahbiis;" that is, when some men 
seek Christ in the conventicles of heretics, and 
others, in an outward face of a church, that voice 
had need continually to sound in men's ears, '' noUte 
exire,'^ "go not out." The doctor of the Gentiles 
(the propriety of whose vocation drew him to have 
a special care of those without) saith : " If a heathen 
come in, and hear you speak with several tongues, 
will he not say that you are mad?" and, certainly, 
it is little better: when atheists and profane persons 
do hear of so many discordant and contrary opinions 
in religion, it doth avert them from the church, 
and maketh them "to sit down in the chair of the 
scorners." It is but a lieht thing to be vouched 
in so serious a matter, but yet it expresseth well 
the deformity. There is a master of scoffing, that, 
in his catalogue of books of a feigned library, sets 
down this title of a book, "The Morris-Dance of 
Heretics;" for, indeed, every sect of them hath 
a diverse posture, or cringe, by themselves, which 
can not but move derision in worldlings and de- 
praved politicians, who are apt to contemn holy 
things. 

As for the fruit towards those that are within, 



i6 BACON'S ESSAYS 

it is peace, which containeth infinite blessings; it 
establisheth faith; it kindleth charity; the outward 
peace of the church distilleth into peace of con- 
science, and it turneth the labors of writing and 
reading of controversies into treatises of mortifica- 
tion and devotion. 

Concerning the bounds of unity, the true placing 
of them importeth exceedingly. There appear to 
be two extremes; for to certain zealots all speech 
of pacification is odious. "Is it peace, Jehu?" — 
"What hast thou to do with peace .^ turn thee be- 
hind me." Peace is not the matter, but following, 
and party. Contrariwise, certain Laodiceans and 
lukewarm persons think they may accommodate 
points of religion by middle ways, and taking part 
of both, and witty reconcilements, as if they would 
make an arbitrament between God and man. Both 
these extremes are to be avoided; which will be 
done if the league of Christians, penned by our 
Saviour himself, were in the two cross-clauses 
thereof soundly and plainly expounded: "He that 
is not with us is against us;" and again, "He that 
is not against us, is with us;" that is, if the points 
fundamental, and of substance in religion, were 
truly discerned and distinguished from points not 
merely of faith, but of opinion, order, or good 
intention. This is a thing may seem to many a 
matter trivial, and done already; but if it were 



OF UNITY IN RELIGION 17 

done less partially, it would be embraced more 
generally. 

Of this I may give only this advice, according 
to my small model. Men ought to take heed of 
rending God's church by two kinds of controversies: 
the one is, when the matter of the point contro- 
verted is too small and light, not worth the heat 
and strife about it, kindled only by contradiction; 
for, as it is noted by one of the fathers, "Christ's 
coat indeed had no seam, but the church's vesture 
was of divers colors;" whereupon he saith, "In 
veste varietas sit., scissura non sit," they be two 
things, unity and uniformity; the other is, when 
the matter of the point controverted is great, but it 
is driven to an over-great subtlety and obscurity, 
so that it becometh a thing rather ingenious than 
substantial. A man that is of judgment and under- 
standing shall sometimes hear ignorant men differ, 
and know well within himself, that those which 
so differ mean one thing, and yet they themselves 
would never agree; and if it come so to pass in that 
distance of judgment, which is between man and 
man, shall we not think that God above, that knows 
the heart, doth not discern that frail men, in some 
of their contradictions, intend the same thing, and 
accepteth of both ? The nature of such controversies 
is excellently expressed by St. Paul, in the warning 
and precept that he giveth concerning the same: 



i8 BACON'S ESSAYS 

" Devita prof anas vocum novitates, et oppositiones falsi 
nominis scientice." Men create oppositions which 
are not, and put them into new terms, so fixed as, 
whereas the meaning ought to govern the term, 
the term in effect governeth the meaning. There 
be also two false peaces, or unities: the one, when 
the peace is grounded but upon an implicit ignor- 
ance, — for all colors will agree in the dark; the 
other, when it is pieced up upon a direct admission 
of contraries in fundamental points, — for truth 
and falsehood, in such things, are like the iron 
and clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzar's image; 
they may cleave, but they will not incorporate. 
Concerning the means of procuring unity, men 
must beware that, in the procuring or muniting 
of religious unity, they do not dissolve and deface 
the laws of charity and of human society. There 
be two swords amongst Christians, the spiritual 
and temporal, and both have their due office and 
place in the maintenance of religion; but we may not 
take up the third sword, which is Mahomet's sword, 
or like unto it; that is, to propagate religion by 
wars, or, by sanguinary persecutions, to force con- 
sciences; except it be in cases of overt scandal, 
blasphemy, or intermixture of practice against the 
state; much less to nourish seditions, to authorize 
conspiracies and rebellions, to put the sword into 
the people's hands, and the like, tending to the 



OF UNITY IN RELIGION 19 

subversion of all government, which is the ordinance 
of God; for this is but to dash the first table against 
the second, and so to consider men as Christians, 
as we forget that they are men. Lucretius, the 
poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that 
could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, 
exclaimed; — 

"Tantum religio potuit saudere malorum.^'' 

What would he have said, if he had known of 
the massacre in France, or the powder treason 
of England ? He would have been seven times 
more epicure and atheist than he was; for as the 
temporal sword is to be drawn with great circum- 
spection in cases of religion, so it is a thing monstrous 
to put it into the hands of the common people; let 
that be left unto the Anabaptists, and other furies. 
It was great blasphemy when the devil said, "I 
will ascend and be like the Highest;" but it is 
greater blasphemy to personate God, and bring 
Him in saying, "I will descend, and be like the 
prince of darkness;" and what is it better, to make 
the cause of religion to descend to the cruel and 
execrable actions of murdering princes, butchery 
of people, and subversion of states and govern- 
ments t Surely, this is to bring down the Holy 
Ghost, instead of the likeness of a dove, in the shape 
of a vulture or raven; and to set out of the bark 



20 BACON'S ESSAYS 

of a Christian church a flag of a bark of pirates 
and assassins; therefore, it is most necessary that 
the church by doctrine and decree, princes by their 
sword, and all learnings, both Christian and moral, 
as by their Mercury rod, do damn and send to 
hell for ever those facts and opinions tending to 
the support of the same, as hath been already in 
good part done. Surely, in counsels concerning 
religion, that counsel of the apostle would be pre- 
fixed: "Ira homints non tmplet justittam Dei;" 
and it was a notable observation of a wise father, 
and no less ingenuously confessed, that those which 
held and persuaded pressure of consciences, were 
commonly interested therein themselves for their 
own ends. 



IV — OF REVENGE 

Revenge is a kind of wild justice, which the 
more man's nature runs to, the more ought law 
to weed it out; for as for the first wrong, it doth 
but offend the law, but the revenge of that wrong, 
putteth the law out of office. Certainly, in taking 
revenge, a man is but even with his enemy, but in 
passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's 
part to pardon; and Solomon, I am sure, saith, 
"It is the glory of a man to pass by an offence." 
That which is past is gone and irrevocable, and 
wise men have enough to do with things present 
and to come; therefore they do but trifle with them- 
selves that labor in past matters. There is no 
man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake, but there- 
by to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honor, 
or the like; therefore, why should I be angry with 
a man for loving himself better than me ^ And if 
any man should do wrong merely out of ill-nature, 
why, yet it is but like the thorn or briar, which 
prick and scratch, because they can do no other. 
The most tolerable sort of revenge is for those 
wrongs which there is no law to remedy; but then, 
let a man take heed the revenge be such as there 
is no law to punish, else a man's enemy is still 



22 BACON'S ESSAYS 

beforehand, and it is two for one. Some, when they 
take revenge, are desirous the party should know 
whence it cometh. This is the more generous; 
for the delight seemeth to be not so much in doing 
the hurt as in making the party repent; but base 
and crafty cowards are hke the arrow that flieth 
in the dark. Cosmus, Duke of Florence, had a 
desperate saying against perfidious or neglecting 
friends, as if those wrongs were unpardonable. 
"You shall read," saith he, "that we are com- 
manded to forgive our enemies; but you never read 
that we are commanded to forgive our friends." 
But yet the spirit of Job was in a better tune: 
"Shall we," saith he, "take good at God's hands, and 
not be content to take evil also ?" and so of friends 
in a proportion. This is certain, that a man that 
studieth revenge keeps his own wounds green, which 
otherwise would heal and do well. Public revenges 
are for the most part fortunate; as that for the death 
of Caesar; for the death of Pertinax; for the death of 
Henry the Third of France; and many more. But 
in private revenges it is not so; nay, rather, vin- 
dictive persons live the life of witches, who, as they 
are mischievous, so end they unfortunate. 



V— OF ADVERSITY 

It was a high speech of Seneca (after the manner 
of the Stoics), that "the good things which belong 
to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things 
that belong to adversity are to be admired." ("Bona 
rerum secundarum optahilia, adversarum mtrabiha.") 
Certainly, if miracles be the command over nature, 
they appear most in adversity. It is yet a higher 
speech of his than the other (much too high for a 
heathen), "It is true greatness to have in one the 
frailty of a man, and the security of a God." ("Fere 
magnum habere fragilitatem hominis securitatem 
Det.") This would have done better in poesy, 
where transcendencies are more allowed, and the 
poets, indeed, have been busy with it; for it is, 
in effect, the thing which is figured in that strange 
fiction of the ancient poets, which seemeth not 
to be without mystery; nay, and to have some 
approach to the state of a Christian, "that Hercules, 
when he went to unbind Prometheus (by whom 
human nature is represented), sailed the length of 
the great ocean in an earthen pot or pitcher," lively 
describing Christian resolution, that saileth in 
the frail bark of the flesh through the waves of the 
world. But to speak in a mean, the virtue of 

23 



24 BACON'S ESSAYS 

prosperity is temperance, tne virtue of adversity 
is fortitude, which in morals is the more heroical 
virtue. Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Tes- 
tament, adversity is the blessing of the New, which 
carrieth the greater benediction, and the clearer 
revelation of God's favor. Yet even in the Old 
Testament, if you listen to David's harp, you shall 
hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the 
pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in 
describing the afflictions of Job than the felicities 
of Solomon. Prosperity is not without many fears 
and distastes; and adversity is not without com- 
forts and hopes. We see, in needleworks and 
embroideries, is it more pleasing to have a lively 
work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have 
a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome 
ground: judge, therefore, of the pleasure of the 
heart by the pleasure of the eye. Certainly, virtue 
is like precious odors, most fragrant when they 
are incensed, or crushed; for prosperity doth best 
discover vice, but adversity doth best discover virtue. 



VI— OF SIMULATION AND DIS- 
SIMULATION 

Dissimulation is but a faint kind of policy, 
or wisdom; for it asketh a strong wit and a strong 
heart to know when to tell truth, and to do it; there- 
fore it is the weaker sort of politicians that are the 
great dissemblers. 

Tacitus saith, "Livia sorted well with the arts 
of her husband, and dissimulation of her son; 
attributing arts or policy to Augustus, and dis- 
simulation to Tiberius;" and again, when 
Mucianus encourageth Vespasian to take arms 
against Vitellius, he saith, "We rise not against 
the piercing judgment of Augustus, nor the ex- 
treme caution or closeness of Tiberius." These 
properties of arts or policy, and dissimulation or 
closeness, are indeed habits and faculties several, 
and to be distinguished; for if a man have that 
penetration of judgment as he can discern what 
things are to be laid open, and what to be secreted, 
and what to be showed at half-lights, and to whom 
and when (which indeed are arts of state, and arts 
of life, as Tacitus well-calleth them), to him a habit 
of dissimulation is a hindrance and a poorness. 
But if a man can not obtain to that judgment, then 

25 



26 BACON'S ESSAYS 

it is left to him generally to be close, and a dis- 
sembler; for where a man can not choose or vary 
in particulars, there it is good to take the safest 
and wariest way in general, like the going softly 
by one that can not well see. Certainly, the ablest 
men that ever were, have had all an openness and 
frankness of dealing, and a name of certainty and 
veracity: but then they were like horses well man- 
aged, for they could tell passing well when to stop 
or turn; and at such times, when they thought 
the case indeed required dissimulation, if then 
they used it, it came to pass that the former opinion 
spread abroad, of their good faith and clearness 
of dealing, made them almost invisible. 

There be three degrees of this hiding and veil- 
ing of a man's self: the first, closeness, reservation, 
and secrecy; when a man leaveth himself without 
observation, or without hold to be taken, what he 
is: the second, dissimulation in the negative; when 
a man lets fall signs and arguments, that he is not 
that he is: and the third, simulation in the affirma- 
tive; when a man industriously and expressly feigns 
and pretends to be that he is not. 

For the first of these, secrecy, it is indeed the 
virtue of a confessor; and assuredly the secret man 
heareth many confessions; for who will open him- 
self to a blab or a babbler ? But if a man be 
thought secret, it inviteth discovery, as the more 



OF DISSIMULATION 27 

close air sucketh in the more open; and, as in con- 
fession, the revealing is not for worldly use, but 
for the ease of a man's heart, so secret men come 
to the knowledge of many things in that kind; 
while men rather discharge their minds than im- 
part their minds. In few words, mysteries are 
due to secrecy. Besides (to say truth), naked- 
ness is uncomely, as well in mind as body; and it 
addeth no small reverence to men's manners and 
actions, if they be not altogether open. As for 
talkers and futile persons, they are commonly vain 
and credulous withal; for he that talketh what he 
knoweth, will also talk what he knoweth not; there- 
fore set it down, that a habit of secrecy is both 
politic and moral: and in this part it is good that 
a man's face give his tongue leave to speak; for 
the discovery of a man's self by the tracts of his 
countenance, is a great weakness and betraying, 
by how much it is many times more marked and 
believed than a man's words. 

For the second, which is dissimulation, it fol- 
loweth many times upon secrecy by a necessity; 
so that he that will be secret must be a dissembler 
in some degree; for men are too cunning to suffer 
a man to keep an indifferent carriage between 
both, and to be secret, without swaying the balance 
on either side. They will so beset a man with 
questions, and draw him on, and pick it out of 



28 BACON'S ESSAYS 

him, that without an absurd silence, he must show 
an inclination one way; or if he do not, they will 
gather as much by his silence as by his speech. 
As for equivocations, or oraculous speeches, they 
can not hold out long: so that no man can be secret, 
except he give himself a little scope of dissimulation, 
which is, as it were, but the skirts or train of secrecy. 

But for the third degree, which is simulation and 
false profession, that I hold more culpable, and 
less politic, except it be in great and rare matters; 
and, therefore, a general custom of simulation 
(which is this last degree) is a vice rising either 
of a natural falseness, or fearfulness, or of a mind 
that hath some main faults; which because a man 
must needs disguise, it maketh him practise simu- 
lation in other things, lest his hand should be out 
of use. 

The advantages of simulation and dissimulation 
are three: first, to lay asleep opposition, and to 
surprise; for, where a man's intentions are pub- 
lished, it is an alarum to call up all that are against 
them: the second is, to reserve to a man's self a fair 
retreat; for if a man engage himself by a manifest 
declaration, he must go through or take a fall: 
the third is, the better to discover the mind of 
another; for to him that opens himself men will 
hardly show themselves adverse; but will (fair) 
let him go on, and turn their freedom of speech to 



OF DISSIMULATION 29 

freedom of thought; and therefore it is a good 
shrewd proverb of the Spaniard, "Tell a lie, and 
find a troth;" as if there were no way of discovery 
but by simulation. There be also three disadvan- 
tages to set it even; the first, that simulation and 
dissimulation commonly carry with them a show 
of fearfulness, which, in any business, doth spoil 
the feathers of round flying up to the mark; the 
second, that it puzzleth and perplexeth the con- 
ceits of many, that, perhaps, would otherwise 
cooperate with him, and makes a man walk almost 
alone to his own ends; the third, and greatest, is, 
that it depriveth a man of one of the most principal 
instruments for action, which is trust and belief. 
The best composition and temperature is, to have 
openness in fame and opinion, secrecy in habit, 
dissimulation in seasonable use, and a power to 
feign if there be no remedy. 



VII — OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN 

The joys of parents are secret, and so are their 
griefs and fears; they cannot utter the one, nor 
they will not utter the other. Children sweeten 
labors, but they make misfortunes more bitter; 
they increase the cares of life, but they mitigate 
the remembrance of death. The perpetuity by 
generation is common to beasts; but memory, 
merit, and noble works, are proper to men: and 
surely a man shall see the noblest works and foun- 
dations have proceeded from childless men, which 
have sought to express the images of their minds 
where those of their bodies have failed; so the care 
of posterity is most in them that have no posterity. 
They that are the first raisers of their houses are 
most indulgent toward their children, behold- 
ing them as the continuance, not only of their 
kind, but of their work; and so both children and 
creatures. 

The difference in affection of parents towards 
their several children is many times unequal, and 
sometimes unworthy, especially in the mother; as 
Solomon saith, "A wise son rejoiceth the father, but 
an ungracious son shames the mother." A man 
shall see, where there is a house full of children, 

30 



OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN 31 

one or two of the eldest respected, and the youngest 
made wantons; but in the midst some that are, 
as it were, forgotten, who many times, nevertheless, 
prove the best. The illiberality of parents, in al- 
lowance towards their children, is a harmful error, 
makes them base, acquaints them with shifts, makes 
them sort with mean company, and makes them 
surfeit more when they come to plenty; and, there- 
fore, the proof is best when men keep their authority 
towards their children, but not their purse. Men 
have a foolish manner (both parents, and school- 
masters, and servants), in creating and breeding 
an emulation between brothers during childhood, 
which many times sorteth to discord when they 
are men, and disturbeth families. The Italians 
make little difference between children and nephews, 
or near kinsfolk; but so they be of the lump, they 
care not, though they pass not through their own 
body; and, to say truth, in nature it is much a like 
matter; insomuch that we see a nephew sometimes 
resembleth an uncle or a kinsman more than his 
own parent, as the blood happens. Let parents 
choose betimes the vocations and courses they mean 
their children should take, for then they are most 
flexible; and let them not too much apply them- 
selves to the disposition of their children, as thinking 
they will take best to that which they have most 
mind to. It is true, that if the aflfection or aptness 



32 BACON'S ESSAYS 

of the children be extraordinary, then it is good not 
to cross it; but generally the precept is good, ''Opti- 
mum elige, suave et facile illud faciei consuetudo." 
— Younger brothers are commonly fortunate, but 
seldom or never where the elder are disinherited. 



VIII — OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE 

LIFE 

He that hath wife and children hath given hos- 
tages to fortune; for they are impediments to great 
enterprises, either of virtue or mischief. Certainly 
the best works, and of greatest merit for the public, 
have proceeded from the unmarried or childless men, 
which, both in affection and means, have married 
and endowed the public. Yet it were great reason 
that those that have children should have greatest 
care of future times, unto which they know they 
must transmit their dearest pledges. Some there 
are who, though they lead a single life, yet their 
thoughts do end with themselves, and account future 
times impertinences; nay, there are some other that 
account wife and children but as bills of charges; 
nay more, there are some foolish, rich, covetous men, 
that take a pride in having no children, because 
they may be thought so much the richer; for, per- 
haps they have heard some talk, "Such an one is 
a great rich man," and another except to it, "Yea, 
but he hath a great charge of children"; as if it 
were an abatement to his riches. But the most 
ordinary cause of a single life is liberty, especially 
in certain self-pleasing and humorous minds, which 

33 



34 BACON'S ESSAYS 

are so sensible of every restraint, as they will go 
near to think their girdles and garters to be bonds 
and shackles. Unmarried men are best friends, best 
masters, best servants; but not always best subjects, 
for they are light to run away, and almost all fugi- 
tives are of that condition. A single life doth well 
with churchmen, for charity will hardly water the 
ground where it must first fill a pool. It is indiffer- 
ent for judges and magistrates; for if they be facile 
and corrupt, you shall have a servant five times 
worse than a wife. For soldiers, I find the generals 
commonly, in their hortatives, put men in mind of 
their wives and children; and I think the despising 
of marriage amongst the Turks maketh the vulgar 
soldier more base. Certainly, wife and children are 
a kind of discipline of humanity; and single men, 
though they be many times more charitable, because 
their names are less exhaust, yet, on the other side, 
they are more cruel and hard-hearted (good to make 
severe inquisitors), because their tenderness is not 
so oft called upon. Grave natures, led by custom, 
and therefore constant, are commonly loving hus- 
bands, as was said of Ulysses, ^^Vetulam suam prac- 
tulit immortalitati." Chaste women are often proud 
and froward, as presuming upon the merit of their 
chastity. It is one of the best bonds, both of chas- 
tity and obedience, in the wife, if she think her 
husband wise, which she will never do if she find 



OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE 35 

him jealous. Wives are young men's mistresses, 
companions for middle age, and old men's nurses, 
so as a man may have a quarrel to marry when he 
will; but yet he was reputed one of the wise men 
that made answer to the question when a man should 
marry, "A young man not yet, an elder man not at 
all." It is often seen that bad husbands have very 
good wives; whether it be that it raiseth the price 
of their husbands' kindness when it comes, or that 
the wives take a pride in their patience; but this 
never fails, if the bad husbands were of their own 
choosing, against their friends' consent, for then 
they will be sure to make good their own folly. 



IX — OF ENVY 

There be none of the affections which have been 
noted to fascinate or bewitch, but love and envy. 
They both have vehement wishes; they frame them- 
selves readily into imaginations and suggestions, and 
they come easily into the eye, especially upon the 
presence of the objects which are the points that 
conduce to fascination, if any such thing there be. 
We see, likewise, the Scripture calleth envy an evil 
eye; and the astrologers call the evil influences of 
the stars evil aspects; so that still there seemeth to 
be acknowledged, in the act of envy, an ejaculation, 
or irradiation of the eye; nay, some have been so 
curious as to note that the times, when the stroke or 
percussion of an envious eye doth most hurt, are, 
when the party envied is beheld in glory or triumph, 
for that sets an edge upon envy; and besides, at 
such times, the spirits of the person envied do come 
forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the 
blow. 

But leaving these curiosities (though not un- 
worthy to be thought on in fit place), we will handle 
what persons are apt to envy others; what persons 
are most subject to be envied themselves; and what 
is the difference between public and private envy. 

36 



OF ENVY 37 

A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envi- 
eth virtue in others; for men's minds will either 
feed upon their own good, or upon others' evil; and 
who wanteth the one will prey upon the other; and 
whoso is out of hope to attain to another's virtue, 
will seek to come at even hand by depressing 
another's fortune. 

A man that is busy and inquisitive, is commonly 
envious; for to know much of other men's matters 
can not be, because all that ado may concern his 
own estate; therefore, it must needs be that he 
taketh a kind of play-pleasure in looking upon the 
fortunes of others; neither can he that mindeth but 
his own business find much matter for envy; for 
envy is a gadding passion, and walketh the streets, 
and doth not keep home: "Non est curiosus, quin 
idem sit malevolus." 

Men of noble birth are noted to be envious to- 
wards new men when they rise, for the distance is 
altered; and it is like a deceit of the eye, that when 
others come on they think themselves go back. 

Deformed persons and eunuchs, and old men and 
bastards, are envious; for he that can not possibly 
mend his own case, will do what he can to impair 
another's; except these defects light upon a very 
brave and heroical nature, which thinketh to make 
his natural wants part of his honor; in that it should 
be said, "That a eunuch, or a lame man, did such 



38 BACON'S ESSAYS 

great matters," affecting the honor of a miracle; 
as it was in Narses the eunuch, and Agesilaus and 
Tamerlane, that were lame men. 

The same is the case of men that rise after calami- 
ties and misfortunes; for they are as men fallen out 
with the times, and think other men's harms a re- 
demption of their own sufferings. 

They that desire to excel in too many matters, out 
of levity and vainglory, are ever envious, for they 
can not want work; it being impossible but many, in 
some one of those things, should surpass them; 
which was the character of Adrian, the emperor, that 
mortally envied poets and painters, and artificers in 
works, wherein he had a vein to excel. 

Lastly, near kinsfolk and fellows in office, and 
those that have been bred together, are more apt to 
envy their equals when they are raised; for it doth 
upbraid unto them their own fortunes, and pointeth 
at them, and cometh oftener into their remembrance, 
and incurreth likewise more into the note of others; 
and envy ever redoubleth from speech and fame. 
Cain's envy was the more vile and malignant to- 
wards his brother Abel, because when his sacrifice 
was better accepted, there was nobody to look on. 
Thus much for those that are apt to envy. 

Concerning those that are more or less subject to 
envy: First, persons of eminent virtue, when they 
are advanced, are less envied, for their fortune 



OF ENVY 39 

seemeth but due unto them; and no man envieth the 
payment of a debt, but rewards and Hberality rather. 
Again, envy is ever joined with the comparing of 
a man's self; and where there is no comparison, 
no envy; and therefore kings are not envied but 
by kings. Nevertheless, it is to be noted, that un- 
worthy persons are most envied at their first coming 
in, and afterwards overcome it better; whereas, 
contrariwise, persons of worth and merit are most 
envied when their fortune continueth long; for by 
that time, though their virtue be the same, yet it 
hath not the same lustre; for fresh men grow up 
that darken it. 

Persons of noble blood are less envied in their 
rising; for it seemeth but right done to their birth: 
besides, there seemeth not so much added to their 
fortune; and envy is as the sunbeams, that beat 
hotter upon a bank or steep rising ground, than 
upon a flat; and, for the same reason, those that are 
advanced by degrees are less envied than those that 
are advanced suddenly, and per saltum. 

Those that have joined with their honor great 
travels, cares, or perils, are less subject to envy; for 
men think that they earn their honors hardly, and 
pity them sometimes, and pity ever healeth envy. 
Wherefore you shall observe, that the more deep 
and sober sort of politic persons, in their greatness, 
are ever bemoaning themselves what a life they lead, 



40 BACON'S ESSAYS 

chanting a quanta patimur; not that they feel it so, 
but only to abate the edge of envy; but this is to be 
understood of business that is laid upon men, and 
not such as they call unto themselves; for nothing 
increaseth envy more than an unnecessary and am- 
bitious engrossing of business; and nothing doth 
extinguish envy more than for a great person to pre- 
serve all other inferior officers in their full rights 
and preeminences of their places; for, by that 
means, there be so many screens between him and 
envy. 

Above all, those are most subject to envy, w^hich 
carry the greatness of their fortunes in an insolent 
and proud manner; being never w^ell but while 
they are showing how great they are, either by out- 
ward pomp, or by triumphing over all opposition 
or competition. Whereas wise men will rather do 
sacrifice to envy, in suffering themselves, sometimes 
of purpose, to be crossed and overborne in things 
that do not much concern them. Notwithstanding, 
so much is true, that the carriage of greatness in a 
plain and open manner (so it be without arrogancy 
and vainglory), doth draw less envy than if it be in a 
more crafty and cunning fashion; for in that course 
a man doth but disavow fortune, and seemeth to be 
conscious of his own want in worth, and doth but 
teach others to envy him. 

Lastly, to conclude this part, as we said in the 



OF ENVY 41 

beginning that the act of envy had somewhat in it 
of witchcraft, so there is no other cure of envy but 
the cure of witchcraft; and that is, to remove the lot 
(as they call it), and to lay it upon another; for which 
purpose, the wiser sort of great persons bring in ever 
upon the stage somebody upon whom to derive the 
envy that would come upon themselves; sometimes 
upon ministers and servants, sometimes upon col- 
leagues and associates, and the like; and, for that 
turn, there are never wanting some persons of vio- 
lent and undertaking natures, who, so they may 
have power and business, will take it at any cost. 

Now, to speak of public envy: there is yet some 
good in public envy, whereas in private there is 
none; for public envy is as an ostracism, that 
eclipseth men when they grow too great; and there- 
fore it is a bridle also to great ones, to keep them 
within bounds. 

This envy, being in the Latin word invidia, goeth 
in the modern languages by the name of discontent- 
ment, of which we shall speak in handling sedition. 
It is a disease in a state like to infection; for as 
infection spreadeth upon that which is sound, and 
tamteth it, so, when envy is gotten once into a state, 
it traduceth even the best actions thereof, and turneth 
them into an ill-odor; and therefore there is little 
won by intermingling of plausible actions; for that 
doth argue but a weakness and fear of enw, which 



42 BACON'S ESSAYS 

hurteth so much the more, as it is likewise usual in 
infections, which, if you fear them, you call them 
upon you. 

This public envy seemeth to beat chiefly upon 
principal officers or ministers, rather than upon 
kings and estates themselves. But this is a sure 
rule, that if the envy upon the minister be great, 
when the cause of it in him is small; or if the envy 
be general in a manner upon all the ministers of 
an estate, then the envy (though hidden) is truly 
upon the state itself. And so much of public envy 
or discontentment, and the difference thereof from 
private envy, which vs^as handled in the first place. 

We will add this in general, touching the affec- 
tion of envy, that, of all other affections, it is the 
most importune and continual; for of other affec- 
tions there is occasion given but nov/ and then; and 
therefore it was well said, "Invtdia festos dies non 
agit:" for it is ever working upon some or other. 
And it is also noted, that love and envy do make a 
man pine, which other affections do not, because 
they are not so continual. It is also the vilest affec- 
tion, and the most depraved; for which cause it is 
the proper attribute of the devil, who is called 
"The envious man, that soweth tares amongst the 
wheat by night;" as it always cometh to pass that 
envy worketh subtlely, and in the dark, and to the 
prejudice of good things, such as is the wheat. 



X — OF LOVE 

The stage is more beholding to love than the 
life of man; for as to the stage, love is ever matter 
of comedies, and now^ and then of tragedies; but in 
life it doth much mischief, sometimes like a siren, 
sometimes like a fury. You may observe, that, 
amongst all the great and worthy persons (whereof 
the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent), 
there is not one that hath been transported to the 
mad degree of love, which shows that great spirits 
and great business do keep out this weak passion. 
You must except, nevertheless, Marcus Antonius, 
the half-partner of the empire of Rome, and Appius 
Claudius, the decemvir and lawgiver; whereof the 
former was indeed a voluptuous man, and inordinate, 
but the latter was an austere and wise man; and 
therefore it seems (though rarely) that love can 
find entrance, not only into an open heart, but also 
into a heart well fortified, if watch be not well kept. 
It is a poor saying of Epicurus, "Satis magnum 
alter alien theatrum sumus/' as if man, made for 
the contemplation of Heaven and all noble objects, 
should do nothing but kneel before a little idol, and 
make himself subject, though not of the mouth (as 
beasts are) yet of the eye, which was given him. for 

43 



44 BACON'S ESSAYS 

higher purposes. It is a strange thing to note the 
excess of this passion, and how it braves the nature 
and value of things, by this, that the speaking in a 
perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but in love, 
neither is it merely in the phrase; for whereas it 
hath been well said, "That the arch-flatterer, with 
whom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is 
a man's self;" certainly, the lover is more; for 
there was never proud man thought so absurdly 
well of himself as the lover doth of the person loved; 
and therefore it was well said, "That it is impossible 
to love and to be wise." Neither doth this weakness 
appear to others only, and not to the party loved, 
but to the loved most of all, except the love be re- 
ciprocal; for it is a true rule, that love is ever re- 
warded, either with the reciprocal, or with an inward 
and secret contempt; by how much the more men 
ought to beware of this passion, which loseth not 
only other things, but itself. As for the other losses, 
the poet's relation doth well figure them: "That he 
that preferred Helena, quitted the gifts of Juno and 
Pallas;" for whosoever esteemeth too much of 
amorous affection, quitteth both riches and wisdom. 
This passion hath his floods in the very times of 
weakness, which are, great prosperity and great ad- 
versity, though this latter hath been less observed; 
both which times kindle love, and make it more fer- 
vent, and therefore show it to be the child of folly. 



O F L O V E 45 

They do best who, if they can not but admit love, 
yet make it keep quarter, and sever it wholly from 
their serious affairs and actions of life; for if it check 
once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and 
maketh men that they can nowise be true to their 
own ends. I know not how, but martial men are 
given to love; I think it is, but as they are given 
to wine, for perils commonly ask to be paid in 
pleasures. There is in man's nature a secret incli- 
nation and motion towards love of others, which, if 
it be not spent upon some one or a few, doth natu- 
rally spread itself towards many, and maketh men 
become humane and charitable, as it is seen some- 
times in friars. Nuptial love maketh mankind, 
friendly love perfecteth it, but wanton love cor- 
rupteth and embaseth it. 



XI — OF GREAT PLACE 

Men in great place are thrice servants — servants 
of the sovereign or state, servants of fame, and 
servants of business; so as they have no freedom, 
neither in their persons, nor in their actions, nor in 
their times. It is a strange desire to seek power 
and to lose liberty; or to seek power over others, 
and to lose power over a man's self. The rising 
unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to 
greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by in- 
dignities men come to dignities. The standing is 
slippery, and the regress is either a downfall, or at 
least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing: ''Cum 
non SIS qui fueris, non esse cur velis vivere." Nay, 
retire men can not when they would, neither will 
they when it were reason; but are impatient of 
privateness even in age and sickness, which require 
the shadow; like old townsmen, that will be still 
sitting at their street door, though thereby they 
offer age to scorn. Certainly, great persons had 
need to borrow other men's opinions to think them- 
selves happy; for if they judge by their own feeling, 
they can not find it; but if they think with them- 
selves what other men think of them, and that other 
men would fain be as they are, then they are happy 

46 



OFGREATPLACE 47 

as it were by report, when, perhaps, they find the 
contrary within; for they are the first that find their 
own griefs, though they be the last that find their 
own faults. Certainly, men in great fortunes are 
strangers to themselves, and while they are in the 
puzzle of business, they have no time to tend their 
health either of body or mind. 

**Illi mors gravis incubat, 
Qui notus nimis omnibus, 
Ignotus moritur." 

In place, there is license to do good and evil, 
whereof the latter is a curse; for in evil, the best 
condition is not to will, the second not to can. But 
power to do good is the true and lawful end of 
aspiring; for good thoughts, though God accept 
them, yet toward men are little better than good 
dreams, except they be put in act; and that can 
not be without power and place, as the vantage 
and commanding ground. Merit and good works 
are the end of man's motion, and conscience of the 
same is the accomplishment of man's rest; for if a 
man can be partaker of God's theatre, he shall 
likewise be partaker of God's rest. '' Et conversus 
Deus, lit aspiceret opera, quce jecerunt manus sucb, 
vidit quod omnia essent bona nimis;" and then the 
Sabbath. 

In the discharge of thy place, set before thee the 
best examples; for imitation is a globe of precepts, 



48 BACON'S ESSAYS 

and after a time set before thee thine own example; 
and examine thyself strictly whether thou didst 
not best at first. Neglect not also the examples of 
those that have carried themselves ill in the same 
place; not to set off thyself by taxing their memory, 
but to direct thyself what to avoid. Reform, there- 
fore, without bravery or scandal of former times 
and persons; but yet set it down to thyself, as well 
to create good precedents as to follow them. Re- 
duce things to the first institution, and observe 
wherein and how they have degenerated; but yet 
ask counsel of both times — of the ancient time 
what is best, and of the latter time what is fittest. 
Seek to make thy course regular, that men may 
know beforehand what they may expect; but be 
not too positive and peremptory, and express thy- 
self well when thou digressest from thy rule. Pre- 
serve the right of thy place, but stir not questions 
of jurisdiction; and rather assume thy right in 
silence, and de facto, than voice it with claims and 
challenges. Preserve likewise the rights of inferior 
places; and think it more honor to direct in chief 
than to be busy in all. Embrace and invite helps 
and advices touching the execution of thy place; 
and do not drive away such as bring thee informa- 
tion, as meddlers, but accept of them in good part. 
The vices of authority are chiefly four: delays, 
corruption, roughness, and facility. For delays, 



OF GREAT PLACE 49 

give easy access, keep times appointed, go through 
with that which is in hand, and interlace not busi- 
ness but of necessity. For corruption, do not only 
bind thine own hands or thy servant's hands from 
taking, but bind the hands of suitors also from 
offering; for integrity used doth the one, but in- 
tegrity professed, and with a manifest detestation 
of bribery, doth the other; and avoid not only the 
fault, but the suspicion. Whosoever is found 
variable, and changeth manifestly without manifest 
cause, giveth suspicion of corruption; therefore, 
always when thou changest thine opinion or course, 
profess it plainly, and declare it, together with the 
reasons that move thee to change, and do not think 
to steal it. A servant or a favorite, if he be inward, 
and no other apparent cause of esteem, is com- 
monly thought but a by-way to close corruption. 
For roughness, it is a needless cause of discontent: 
severity breedeth fear, but roughness breedeth 
hate. Even reproofs from authority ought to be 
grave, and not taunting. As for facility, it is worse 
than bribery, for bribes come but now and then; 
but if importunity or idle respects lead a man, he 
shall never be without; as Solomon saith, "To 
respect persons is not good; for such a man will 
transgress for a piece of bread." 

It is most true that was anciently spoken: "A 
place showeth the man; and it showeth some to the 



50 BACON'S ESSAYS 

better, and some to the worse:" ^^ Omnium con- 
sensu capax ijnperii, nisi imperasset,'' saith Tacitus 
of Galba; but of Vespasian he saith, "Solus impe- 
rantium, Vespasianus mutatus in melius;" though 
the one was meant of sufficiency, the other of man- 
ners and affection. It is an assured sign of a worthy 
and generous spirit, whom honor amends; for honor 
is, or should be, the place of virtue; and as in nature 
things move violently to their place, and calmly 
in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in 
authority settled and calm. All rising to great 
place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, 
it is good to side a man's self whilst he is in the 
rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. 
Use the memory of thy predecessor fairly and 
tenderly; for if thou dost not, it is a debt will sure 
be paid when thou art gone. If thou have col- 
leagues, respect them; and rather call them when 
they look not for it, than exclude them when they 
have reason to look to be called. Be not too sensi- 
ble or too remembering of thy place in conversation 
and private answers to suitors; but let it rather be 
said, "When he sits in place, he is another man." 



XII — OF BOLDNESS 

It is a trivial grammar-school text, but yet 
worthy a wise man's consideration. Question was 
asked of Demosthenes, what was the chief part of 
an orator ? He answered, Action. What next ? 
— Action. What next again .? — Action. He said 
it that knew it best, and had, by nature, himself 
no advantage in that he commended. A strange 
thing, that that part of an orator which is but super- 
ficial, and rather the virtue of a player, should be 
placed so high above those other noble parts of 
invention, elocution, and the rest; nay, almost 
alone, as if it were all in all. But the reason is 
plain. There is in human nature generally more 
of the fool than of the wise; and therefore, those 
faculties by which the foolish part of men's minds 
is taken are most potent. Wonderful like is the 
case of boldness in civil business. What first ^ — 
Boldness: what second and third .^ — Boldness. 
And yet boldness is a child of ignorance and base- 
ness, far inferior to other parts; but, nevertheless, 
it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot those 
that are either shallow in judgment or weak in 
courage, which are the greatest part, yea, and pre- 
vaileth with wise men at weak times; therefore, 

51 



52 BACON'S ESSAYS 

we see it hath done wonders in popular states, but 
with senates and princes less, and more, ever upon 
the first entrance of bold persons into action than 
soon after; for boldness is an ill-keeper of promise. 
Surely, as there are mountebanks for the natural 
body, so are there mountebanks for the politic 
body; men that undertake great cures, and perhaps 
have been lucky in two or three experiments, but 
want the grounds of science, and therefore can 
not hold out; nay, you shall see a bold fellow many 
times do Mahomet's miracle. Mahomet made the 
people believe that he would call a hill to him, and 
from the top of it offer up his prayers for the ob- 
servers of his law. The people assembled; Mahomet 
called the hill to come to him again and again; and 
when the hill stood still, he was never a whit abashed, 
but said, "If the hill will not come to Mahomet, 
Mahomet will go to the hill." So these men, when 
they have promised great matters and failed most 
shamefully, yet, if they have the perfection of bold- 
ness, they will but slight it over, and make a turn, 
and no more ado. Certainly, to men of great 
judgment, bold persons are a sport to behold; nay, 
and to the vulgar also boldness hath somewhat 
of the ridiculous; for if absurdity be the subject of 
laughter, doubt you not but great boldness is seldom 
without some absurdity; especially it is a sport to 
see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for 



OF BOLDNESS 53 

that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden 
posture, as needs it must; for in bashfulness the 
spirits do a Httle go and come, but with bold men, 
upon Hke occasion, they stand at a stay; Hke a stale 
at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game 
can not stir; but this last were fitter for a satire 
than for a serious observation. This is well to be 
weighed, that boldness is ever blind, for it seeth 
not dangers and inconveniences; therefore, it is 
ill in counsel, good in execution; so that the right 
use of bold persons is, that they never command 
in chief, but be seconds and under the direction of 
others; for in counsel it is good to see dangers; 
and in execution not to see them except they be 
very great. 



XIII_OF GOODNESS, AND GOOD- 
NESS OF NATURE 

I TAKE goodness in this sense, the affecting of 
the weal of men, which is that the Grecians call 
philanthropia; and the word humanity, as it is 
used, is a little too light to express it. Goodness 
I call the habit, and goodness of nature the inclina- 
tion. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, 
is the greatest, being the character of the Deity; 
and without it man is a busy, mischievous, wretched 
thing, no better than a kind of vermin. Goodness 
answers to the theological virtue charity, and ad- 
mits no excess but error. The desire of power in 
excess caused the angels to fall; the desire of knowl- 
edge in excess caused man to fall; but in charity 
there is no excess, neither can angel or man come 
in danger by it. The inclination to goodness is 
imprinted deeply in the nature of man, insomuch 
that if it issue not towards men, it will take unto 
other living creatures; as it is seen in the Turks, a 
cruel people, who nevertheless are kind to beasts, 
and give alms to dogs and birds; insomuch, as 
Busbechius reporteth, a Christian boy in Con- 
stantinople had like to have been stoned for gagging 
in a waggishness a long-billed fowl. Errors, in- 

54 



OF GOODNESS OF NATURE 55 

deed, in this virtue, of goodness or charity, may be 
committed. The Itahans have an ungracious 
proverb: "Tanto buon che val niente;" "So good, 
that he is good for nothing;" and one of the doctors 
of Italy, Nicholas Machiavel, had the confidence 
to put in w^riting, almost in plain terms, "That the 
Christian faith had given up good men in prey to 
those that are tyrannical and unjust;" which he 
spake, because, indeed, there v^as never law, or 
sect, or opinion did so much magnify goodness as 
the Christian religion doth; therefore, to avoid 
the scandal and the danger both, it is good to take 
knowledge of the errors of a habit so excellent. 
Seek the good of other men, but be not in bondage 
to their faces or fancies; for that is but facility or soft- 
ness, which taketh an honest mind prisoner. Neither 
give thou ^sop's cock a gem, who would be better 
pleased and happier if he had had a barley-corn. 
The example of God teacheth the lesson truly: 
"He sendeth his rain, and maketh his sun to shine 
upon the just and the unjust;" but he doth not 
rain wealth, nor shine honor and virtues upon men 
equally; common benefits are to be communicate 
with all, but peculiar benefits with choice. And 
beware how, in making the portraiture, thou break- 
est the pattern; for divinity maketh the love of 
ourselves the pattern, the love of our neighbors 
but the portraiture: "Sell all thou hast, and give 



56 BACON'S ESSAYS 

it to the poor, and follow me;" but sell not all thou 
hast, except thou come and follow me; that is, 
except thou have a vocation wherein thou mayest 
do as much good with little means as with great; 
for otherwise, in feeding the streams thou driest 
the fountain. Neither is there only a habit of 
goodness directed by right reason, but there is in 
some men, even in nature, a disposition towards 
it; as, on the other side, there is a natural malignity, 
for there be that in their nature do not affect the 
good of others. The lighter sort of malignity 
turneth but to a crossness, or frowardness, or apt- 
ness to oppose, or difficileness, or the like; but the 
deeper sort to envy, and mere mischief. Such 
men in other men's calamities are, as it were, in 
season, and are ever on the loading part; not so 
good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores, but 
like flies that are still buzzing upon any thing that 
is raw; misanthropi, that make it their practice to 
bring men to the bough, and yet have never a tree 
for the purpose in their gardens, as Timon had. 
Such dispositions are the very errors of human 
nature, and yet they are the fittest timber to make 
great politics of; like to knee timber, that is good 
for ships that are ordained to be tossed, but not 
for building houses that shall stand firm. The 
parts and signs of goodness are many. If a man 
be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows 



OF GOODNESS OF NATURE 57 

he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is 
no island cut off from other lands, but a continent 
that joins to them; if he be compassionate towards 
the afflictions of others, it shows that his heart is 
like the noble tree that is wounded itself when it 
gives the balm; if he easily pardons and remits 
offences, it shows that his mind is planted above 
injuries, so that he can not be shot; if he be thank- 
ful for small benefits, it shows that he weighs men's 
minds, and not their trash; but, above all, if he 
have Saint Paul's perfection, that he would wish to 
be an anathema from Christ for the salvation of 
his brethren, it shows much of a divine nature, 
and a kind of conformity with Christ himself. 



XIV— OF NOBILITY 

We will speak of nobility, first, as a portion 
of an estate, then as a condition of particular per- 
sons. A monarchy, where there is no nobility at 
all, is ever a pure and absolute tyranny as that of 
the Turks; for nobility attempers sovereignty, and 
draws the eyes of the people somewhat aside from 
the line royal: but for democracies they need it not; 
and they are commonly more quiet and less sub- 
ject to sedition than where there are stirps of nobles; 
for men's eyes are upon the business, and not upon 
the persons; or if upon the persons, it is for the 
business sake, as fittest, and not for flags and pedi- 
gree. We see the Switzers last well, notwithstanding 
their diversity of religion and of cantons; for utility 
is their bond, and not respects. The United Prov- 
inces of the Low Countries in their government 
excel; for where there is an equality the consulta- 
tions are more indiflPerent, and the payments and 
tributes more cheerful. A great and potent no- 
bility addeth majesty to a monarch, but diminisheth 
power, and putteth life and spirit into the people, 
but presseth their fortune. It is well when nobles 
are not too great for sovereignty nor for justice; 
and yet maintained in that height, as the insolency 

58 



OF NOBILITY 59 

of inferiors may be broken upon them, before it 
come on too fast upon the majesty of kings. A 
numerous nobility causeth poverty and inconve- 
nience in a state, for it is a surcharge of expense; 
and besides, it being of necessity that many of the 
nobility fall in time to be v^eak in fortune, it maketh 
a kind of disproportion between honor and means. 
As for nobility in particular persons, it is a rever- 
end thing to see an ancient castle or building not 
in decay, or to see a fair timber-tree sound and 
perfect; how much more to behold an ancient noble 
family, which hath stood against the waves and 
v/eathers of time! For new nobility is but the 
act of power, but ancient nobility is the act of 
time. Those that are first raised to nobility are 
commonly more virtuous, but less innocent than 
their descendants; for there is rarely any rising 
but by a commixture of good and evil arts; but 
it is reason the memory of their virtues remain 
to their posterity, and their faults die with them- 
selves. Nobility of birth commonly abateth in- 
dustry, and he that is not industrious, envieth 
him that is; besides, noble persons can not go much 
higher; and he that standeth at a stay when others 
rise, can hardly avoid motions of envy. On the 
other side, nobility extinguisheth the passive envy 
from others towards them, because they are in 



6o BACON'S ESSAYS 

possession of honor. Certainly, kings that have 
able men of their nobility shall find ease in em- 
ploying them, and a better slide into their business; 
for people naturally bend to them, as born in some 
sort to command. 



XV— OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 

Shepherds of people had need know the cal- 
endars of tempests in state, which are commonly 
greatest when things grow to equality; as natural 
tempests are greatest about the equinoctia, and as 
there are certain hollow blasts of wind and secret 
swellings of seas before a tempest, so are there in 
states : — 

" Ille etiam caecos instare tumultus 
Sspe monet, fraudesque et operta tumescere bella." 

Libels and licentious discourses against the state, 
when they are frequent and open; and in like sort 
false news, often running up and down, to the 
disadvantage of the state, and hastily embraced, 
are amongst the signs of troubles. Virgil, giving 
the pedigree of Fame, saith she was sister to the 
giants : — 

** Illam Terra parens, ira irritata Deorum, 
Extremam (ut perhibent) Cceo Enceladoque sororem 
Progenuit," 

As if fames were the relics of seditions past; 
but they are no less indeed the preludes of sedi- 
tions to come. Howsoever, he noteth it right, 
that seditious tumults and seditious fames differ 

6i 



62 BACON'S ESSAYS 

no more but as brother and sister, masculine and 
feminine; especially if it come to that, that the best 
actions of a state, and the most plausible, and which 
ought to give greatest contentment, are taken in ill 
sense, and traduced; for that shows the envy great, 
as Tacitus saith, " Conflata magna invidia, seu bene, 
seu male, gesta premunt." Neither doth it follow, 
that because these fames are a sign of troubles, 
that the suppressing of them with too much severity 
should be a remedy of troubles; for the despising 
of them many times checks them best, and the 
going about to stop them doth but make a wonder 
long-lived. Also that kind of obedience, which 
Tacitus speaketh of, is to be held suspected: " Erant 
in officio, sed tamen qui mallent imperantium man- 
data interpretari, quam exsequi;" disputing ex- 
cusing, caviling upon mandates and directions, is 
a kind of shaking off the yoke, and assay of dis- 
obedience; especially if, in those disputings, they 
which are for the direction speak fearfully and ten- 
derly, and those that are against it, audaciously. 

Also, as Machiavel noteth well, when princes, 
that ought to be common parents, make themselves 
as a party, and lean to a side; it is as a boat that 
is overthrown by uneven weight on the one side, 
as was well seen in the time of Henry the Third of 
France; for first himself entered league for the 
extirpation of the Protestants, and presently after 



OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 63 

the same league was turned upon himself; for when 
the authority of princes is made but an accessory to 
a cause, and that there be other bands that tie faster 
than the band of sovereignty, kings begin to be put 
almost out of possession. 

Also, when discords, and quarrels, and factions 
are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the 
reverence of government is lost; for the motions of 
the greatest persons in a government ought to be as 
the motions of the planets under primum mobile, 
according to the old opinion, which is, that every of 
them is carried swiftly by the highest motion, and 
softly in their own motion; and therefore, when 
great ones in their own particular motion move 
violently, and as Tacitus expresseth it well, "libertus 
quam lit imperantium memtnissent," it is a sign the 
orbs are out of frame; for reverence is that where- 
with princes are girt from God, who threateneth the 
dissolving thereof: " Solvam cingula regum.'^ 

So when any of the four pillars of government 
are mainly shaken or weakened (which are religion, 
justice, counsel, and treasure), men had need to pray 
for fair weather. But let us pass from this part 
of predictions (concerning which, nevertheless, more 
light may be taken from that which followeth), and 
let us speak first of the materials of seditions; then 
of the motives of them; and thirdly of the remedies. 

Concerning the materials of seditions, it is a thing 



64 BACON'S ESSAYS 

well to be considered, for the surest way to prevent 
seditions (if the times do bear it), is to take away 
the matter of them; for if there be fuel prepared, 
it is hard to tell whence the spark shall come that 
shall set it on fire. The matter of seditions is of 
two kinds, much poverty and much discontentment. 
It is certain, so many overthrown estates, so many 
votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of 
Rome before the civil war: — 

" Hinc usura vorax, rapidumquc in tempore foenus, 
Hinc concussa fides, et multis utile bellum." 

This same "multis utile bellum" is an assured and 
infallible sign of a state disposed to seditions and 
troubles; and if this poverty and broken estate in 
the better sort be joined with a want and necessity 
in the mean people, the danger is imminent and 
great; for the rebellions of the belly are the worst. 
As for discontentments, they are in the politic body 
like to humors in the natural, which are apt to 
gather a preternatural heat and to inflame; and let 
no prince measure the danger of them by this, 
whether they be just or unjust; for that were to 
imagine people to be too reasonable, who do often 
spurn at their own good; nor yet by this, whether 
the griefs whereupon they rise be in fact great or 
small; for they are the most dangerous discontent- 
ments where the fear is greater than the feeling: 



OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 65 

^^ Dolendi modus y timendi non item." Besides, in 
great oppressions, the same things that provoke the 
patience, do withal mate the courage; but in fears 
it is not so; neither let any prince or state be secure 
concerning discontentments, because they have been 
often or have been long, and yet no peril hath ensued; 
for as it is true that every vapor or fume doth not 
turn into a storm, so it is nevertheless true that 
storms, though they blow over divers times, yet may 
fall at last; and, as the Spanish proverb noteth 
well, "The cord breaketh at the last by the weakest 
pull." 

The causes and motives of seditions are, innova- 
tion in religion, taxes, alteration of laws and cus- 
toms, breaking of privileges, general oppression, 
advancement of unworthy persons, strangers, dearths, 
disbanded soldiers, factions grown desperate, and 
whatsoever in offending people joineth and knitteth 
them in a common cause. 

For the remedies, there may be some general 
preservatives, whereof we will speak; as for the 
just cure, it must answer to the particular disease, 
and so be left to counsel rather than rule. 

The first remedy, or prevention, is to remove, by 
all means possible, that material cause of sedition 
whereof we spake, which is, want and poverty in 
the estate; to which purpose serveth the opening 
and well-balancing of trade; the cherishing of manu- 



66 BACON'S ESSAYS 

factures; the banishing of idleness; the repressing 
of waste and excess by sumptuary laws; the im- 
provement and husbanding of the soil; the regu- 
lating of prices of things vendible; the moderating 
of taxes and tributes, and the like. Generally, it is 
to be foreseen that the population of a kingdom 
(especially if it be not mown down by wars) do not 
exceed the stock of the kingdom which should main- 
tain them; neither is the population to be reck- 
oned only by number; for a smaller number, that 
spend more and earn less, do wear out an estate 
sooner than a greater number that live lower and 
gather more. Therefore the multiplying of nobility 
and other degrees of quality, in an over-proportion 
to the common people, doth speedily bring a state 
to necessity; and so doth likewise an overgrown 
clergy, for they bring nothing to the stock; and in 
like manner, when more are bred scholars than 
preferments can take off. 

It is likewise to be remembered, that, forasmuch 
as the increase of any estate must be upon the for- 
eigner (for whatsoever is somewhere gotten is some- 
where lost), there be but three things which one 
nation selleth unto another; the commodity, as 
nature yieldeth it; the manufacture; and the vec- 
ture or carriage; so that, if these three wheels go, 
wealth will flow as in a spring tide. And it cometh 
many times to pass, that, " materiam superahit 



OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 67 

opus," that the work and carriage is more worth 
than the material, and enricheth a state more; as 
is notably seen in the Low Countryman, who have 
the best mines above ground in the world. 

Above all things, good policy is to be used, that 
the treasure and moneys in a state be not gathered 
into few hands; for, otherwise, a state may have a 
great stock, and yet starve. And money is like 
muck, not good except it be spread. This is done 
chiefly by suppressing, or, at the least, keeping a 
strait hand upon the devouring trades of usury, en- 
grossing great pasturages, and the like. 

For removing discontentments, or, at least, the 
danger of them, there is in every state (as we know) 
two portions of subjects, the nobles and the com- 
monalty. When one of these is discontent, the 
danger is not great; for common people are of slow 
motion, if they be not excited by the greater sort; 
and the greater sort are of small strength, except 
the multitude be apt and ready to move of them- 
selves; then is the danger, when the greater sort 
do but wait for the troubling of the waters amongst 
the meaner, that then they may declare themselves. 
The poets feign that the rest of the gods would 
have bound Jupiter, which he hearing of, by the 
counsel of Pallas, sent for Briareus, with his 
hundred hands, to come in to his aid; an 
emblem, no doubt, to show how safe it is for 



68 BACON'S ESSAYS 

monarchs to make sure of the good-will of common 
people. 

To give moderate liberty for griefs and discon- 
tentments to evaporate (so it be without too great 
insolency or bravery), is a safe way; for he that 
turneth the humors back, and maketh the wound 
bleed inwards, endangereth malign ulcers and per- 
nicious imposthumations. 

The part of Epimetheus might well become 
Prometheus, in the case of discontentments, for 
there is not a better provision against them. Epi- 
metheus, when griefs and evils flew abroad, at last 
shut the lid, and kept Hope in the bottom of the 
vessel. Certainly, the politic and artificial nourish- 
ing and entertaining of hopes, and carrying men from 
hopes to hopes, is one of the best antidotes against 
the poison of discontentments; and it is a certain 
sign of a wise government and proceeding, when it 
can hold men's hearts by hopes, when it can not by 
satisfaction; and when it can handle things in such 
manner as no evil shall appear so peremptory, but 
that it hath some outlet of hope; which is the less 
hard to do, because both particular persons and fac- 
tions are apt enough to flatter themselves, or at 
least to brave that which they believe not. 

Also the foresight and prevention, that there be 
no likely or fit head whereunto discontented persons 
may resort, and under whom they may join, is a 



OF SEDITIONS AND TROUBLES 69 

known but an excellent point of caution. I under- 
stand a fit head to be one that hath greatness and 
reputation, that hath confidence with the discon- 
tented party, and upon whom they turn their eyes, 
and that is thought discontented in his own par- 
ticular: which kind of persons are either to be won 
and reconciled to the state, and that in a fast and 
true manner; or to be fronted with some other of 
the same party that may oppose them, and so divide 
the reputation. Generally, the dividing and break- 
ing of all factions and combinations that are adverse 
to the state, and setting them at distance, or, at 
least, distrust amongst themselves, is not one of the 
worst remedies; for it is a desperate case, if those 
that hold with the proceeding of the state be full of 
discord and faction, and those that are against it be 
entire and united. 

I have noted, that some witty and sharp speeches, 
which have fallen from princes, have given fire to 
seditions. Caesar did himself infinite hurt in that 
speech — "Sylla nescivit literas, non potuit die- 
tare^" for it did utterly cut off that hope which 
men had entertained, that he would, at one time or 
other, give over his dictatorship. Galba undid him- 
self by that speech, " Legt a se militem, non emi;" 
for it put the soldiers out of hope of the donative. 
Probus, likewise, by that speech, "Si vixero, non 
opus ertt amplius Romano imperio mdittbus;" a 



70 BACON'S ESSAYS 

speech of great despair for the soldiers, and many 
the like. Surely princes had need, in tender matters 
and ticklish times, to beware what they say, espe- 
cially in these short speeches, which fly abroad like 
darts, and are thought to be shot out of their secret 
intentions; for as for large discourses, they are flat 
things, and not so much noted. 

Lastly, let princes, against all events, not be 
without some great person, one or rather more, of 
military valor, near unto them, for the repressing of 
seditions in their beginnings; for without that, there 
useth to be more trepidation in court upon the first 
breaking out of troubles than were fit, and the state 
runneth the danger of that which Tacitus saith: 
"Atque is habitus animorum fiiit, ut pessimum 
facinus auderent pauci, plures vellent, omnes pater- 
entur:" but let such military persons be assured, 
and well reputed of, rather than factious and popu- 
lar; holding also good correspondence with the other 
great men in the state, or else the remedy is worse 
than the disease. 



XVI— OF ATHEISM 

I HAD rather believe all the fables in the legends, 
and the Talmud, and the Alcoran, than that this 
universal frame is without a mind; and, therefore, 
God never wrought miracle to convince atheism, 
because his ordinary works convince it. It is true, 
that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to 
atheism, but depth in philosophy bringeth men's 
minds about to religion; for while the mind of man 
looketh upon second causes scattered, it may some- 
times rest in them, and go no further; but when it 
beholdeth the chain of them confederate, and linked 
together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity. 
Nay, even that school which is most accused of 
atheism, doth most demonstrate religion: that is, 
the school of Leucippus, and Democritus, and 
Epicurus; for it is a thousand times more credible 
that four mutable elements, and one immutable fifth 
essence, duly and eternally placed, need no God, 
than that an army of infinite small portions, or seeds 
unplaced, should have produced this order and 
beauty without a divine Marshal. The Scripture 
saith, "The fool hath said In his heart, there is no 
God; it is not said, "The fool hath thought in his 
heart;" so as he rather saith it by rote to himself, 

71 



72 BACON'S ESSAYS 

as that he would have, than that he can thoroughly 
believe it, or be persuaded of it; for none deny there 
is a God, but those for whom it maketh that there 
were no God. It appeareth in nothing more, that 
atheism is rather in the lip than in the heart of man 
than by this, that atheists will ever be talking of that 
their opinion, as if they fainted in it within them- 
selves, and would be glad to be strengthened by the 
consent of others; nay more, you shall have atheists 
strive to get disciples, as it fareth with other sects; 
and, which is most of all, you shall have of them 
that will suffer for atheism, and not recant; whereas, 
if they did truly think that there were no such thing 
as God, why should they trouble themselves ? Epi- 
curus is charged, that he did but dissemble for his 
credit's sake, when he affirmed there were blessed 
natures, but such as enjoyed themselves without 
having respect to the government of the world. 
Wherein they say he did temporize, though in secret 
he thought there was no God; but certainly he is 
traduced, for his words are noble and divine: '■'■Non 
Deos vulgi negare profanum; sed vulgi opiniones 
Dns applicare profanum." Plato could have said 
no more; and, although he had the confidence to 
deny the administration, he had not the power 
to deny the nature. The Indians of the West 
have names for their particular gods, though 
they have no name for God; as if the heathens 



OP^ ATHEISM 73 

should have had the names Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, 
etc., but not the word Deus, which shows that even 
those barbarous people have the notion, though they 
have not the latitude and extent of it; so that against 
atheists the very savages take part with the very 
subtlest philosophers. The contemplative atheist is 
rare; a Diagoras, a Bion, a Lucian, perhaps, and 
some others, and yet they seem to be more than they 
are; for that all that impugn a received religion, 
or superstition, are, by the adverse part, branded 
with the name of atheists. But the great atheists 
indeed are hypocrites, which are ever handling holy 
things, but without feeling, so as they must needs be 
cauterized in the end. The causes of atheism are: 
divisions in religion, if they be many; for any one 
main division addeth zeal to both sides, but many 
divisions introduce atheism. Another is, scandal of 
priests, when it is come to that which St. Bernard 
saith: " Non est jam dicere, ut populus, sic sacerdos; 
quia nee sic populus, ut saeerJos.'' A third is, 
custom of profane scoffing in holy matters, which 
doth by little and little deface the reverence of 
religion: and lastly, learned times, specially with 
peace and prosperity; for troubles and adversities 
do more bow men's minds to religion. They that 
deny a God destroy a man's nobility, for certainly 
man is of kin to the beasts by his body; and if he 
be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and 



74 BACON'S ESSAYS 

ignoble creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity, 
and the raising of human nature; for, take an ex- 
ample of a dog, and mark what a generosity and 
courage he will put on when he finds himself main- 
tained by a man, who, to him, is in stead of a God, 
or melior natura; which courage is manifestly such 
as that creature, without that confidence of a better 
nature than his own, could never attain. So man, 
when he resteth and assureth himself upon divine 
protection and favor, gathereth a force and faith, 
which human nature in itself could not obtain; 
therefore, as atheism is in all respects hateful, so in 
this, that it depriveth human nature of the means 
to exalt itself above human frailty. As it is in par- 
ticular persons, so it is in nations: never was there 
such a state for magnanimity as Rome. Of this 
state hear what Cicero saith: " Quam volumus, licet, 
P aires conscripti, nos amemus, tamen nee numero 
Hispanos, nee rohore Gallos, nee calltditate Pcenos, 
nee artihus Grceeos, nee denique hoc ipso hujus 
gentis et terrcB domestico nativoque sensu Italos 
ipsos et Latthos; sed ptetate, ac religione, atque 
hac una sapientia, quod Deorum immortalium nu- 
mine 07nnia regi, guhernarique perspeximus, omnes 
gentes, nationesque superavimus." 



XVII— OF SUPERSTITION 

It were better to have no opinion of God at all, 
than such an opinion as is unworthy of him; for 
the one is unbelief, the other is contumely, and cer- 
tainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity. 
Plutarch saith well to that purpose: "Surely," saith 
he, "I had rather a great deal men should say there 
was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they 
should say that there was one Plutarch that would 
eat his children as soon as they were born," as 
the poets speak of Saturn; and, as the contumely 
is greater towards God, so the danger is greater 
towards men. Atheism leaves a man to sense, to 
philosophy, to natural piety, to laws, to reputation, 
all which may be guides to an outward moral virtue, 
though religion were not; but superstition dismounts 
all these, and erecteth an absolute monarchy in the 
minds of men. Therefore atheism did never perturb 
states; for it makes men wary of themselves, as 
looking no further, and we see the times inclined 
to atheism (as the time of Augustus Caesar) were 
civil times; but superstition hath been the confusion 
of many states, and bringeth in a new primiim mo- 
bile^ that ravisheth all the spheres of government. 
The master of superstition is the people, and in all 

75 



76 BACON'S ESSAYS 

superstition wise men follow fools; and arguments 
are fitted to practice in a reversed order. It was 
gravely said by some of the prelates in the Council 
of Trent, where the doctrine of the schoolmen 
bare great sway, that the schoolmen were like as- 
tronomers, which did feign eccentrics and epicycles, 
and such engines of orbs to save the phenomena, 
though they knew there were no such things; and, 
in like manner, that the schoolmen had framed a 
number of subtle and intricate axioms and theorems, 
to save the practice of the Church. The causes of 
superstition are, pleasing and sensual rites and cer- 
emonies; excess of outward and Pharisaical holiness; 
over-great reverence of traditions, which can not but 
load the Church; the stratagems of prelates for 
their own ambition and lucre; the favoring too much 
of good intentions, which openeth the gate to con- 
ceits and novelties; the taking an aim at divine 
matters by human, which can not but breed mixture 
of imaginations; and, lastly, barbarous times, espe- 
cially joined with calamities and disasters. Supersti- 
tion, without a veil, is a deformed thing; for, as it 
addeth deformity to an ape to be so like a man, 
so the similitude of superstition to religion makes 
it the more deformed; and as wholesome meat cor- 
rupteth to little worms, so good forms and orders 
corrupt into a number of petty observances. There 
is a superstition in avoiding superstition, when men 



OF SUPERSTITION 77 

think to do best if they go furthest from the super- 
stition formerly received; therefore care would be 
had that (as it fareth in ill-purgings) the good be not 
taken away with the bad, which commonly is done 
when the people is the reformer. 



XVIII— OF TRAVEL 

Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of educa- 
tion; in the elder, a part of experience. He that 
traveleth into a country before he hath some en- 
trance into the language, goeth to school, and not to 
travel. That young men travel under some tutor 
or grave servant, I allow well, so that he be such a 
one that hath the language, and hath been in the 
country before; whereby he may be able to tell 
them what things are worthy to be seen in the 
country where they go, what acquaintances they 
are to seek, what exercises or discipline the place 
yieldeth; for else young men shall go hooded, and 
look abroad little. It is a strange thing that, in 
sea voyages, where there is nothing to be seen but 
sky and sea, men should make diaries; but in land 
travel, wherein so much is to be observed, for the 
most part they omit it, as if chance were fitter to 
be registered than observation. Let diaries, there- 
fore, be brought in use. The things to be seen and 
observed are, the courts of princes, especially when 
they give audience to ambassadors; the courts of 
justice, while they sit and hear causes; and so of 
consistories ecclesiastic; the churches and monas- 
teries, with the monuments which are therein ex- 

78 



OFTRAVEL 79' 

tant; the walls and fortifications of cities and towns; 
and so the havens and harbors, antiquities and ruins, 
libraries, colleges, disputations, and lectures, where 
any are; shipping and navies; houses and gardens 
of state and pleasure, near great cities; armories, 
arsenals, magazines, exchanges, burses, warehouses, 
exercises of horsemanship, fencing, training of sol- 
diers, and the like; comedies, such whereunto the 
better sort of persons do resort; treasuries of jewels 
and robes; cabinets and rarities; and, to conclude, 
whatsoever is memorable in the places where they 
go, after all which the tutors or servants ought to 
make diligent inquiry. As for triumphs, masks, 
feasts, weddings, funerals, capital executions, and 
such shows, men need not to be put in mind of 
them; yet they are not to be neglected. If you 
will have a young man to put his travel into a little 
room, and in short time to gather much, this you^ 
must do: first, as was said, he must have some 
entrance into the language before he goeth; then 
he must have such a servant, or tutor, as knoweth 
the country, as was likewise said; let him carry 
with him also some card or book, describing the 
country where he traveleth, which will be a good 
key to his inquiry; let him keep also a diary; let 
him not stay long in one city or town, more or less 
as the place deserveth, but not long; nay, when he 
stayeth in one city or town, let him change his lodg- 



8o BACON'S ESSAYS 

ing from one end and part of the town to another, 
which is a great adamant of acquaintance; let him 
sequester himself from the company of his country- 
men, and diet in such places where there is good 
company of the nation where he traveleth; let him, 
upon his removes from one place to another, pro- 
cure recommendation to some person of quality 
residing in the place whither he removeth, that he 
may use his favor in those things he desireth to see 
or know: thus he may abridge his travel with much 
profit. As for the acquaintance which is to be 
sought in travel, that which is most of all profitable, 
is acquaintance with the secretaries and employed 
men of ambassadors, for so in traveling in one 
country he shall suck the experience of many; let 
him also see and visit eminent persons in all kinds 
which are of great name abroad, that he may be 
able to tell how the life agreeth with the fame. 
For quarrels, they are with care and discretion to be 
avoided; they are commonly for mistresses, healths, 
place, and words; and let a man beware how he 
keepeth company with choleric and quarrelsome 
persons, for they will engage him into their own 
quarrels. When a traveler returneth home, let 
him not leave the countries where he hath traveled 
altogether behind him, but maintain a correspon- 
dence by letters with those of his acquaintance which 
are of most worth; and let his travel appear rather 



OF TRAVEL 8i 

in his discourse than in his apparel or gesture, and 
in his discourse let him be rather advised in his 
answers, than forward to tell stories; and let it 
appear that he doth not change his country manners 
for those of foreign parts, but only prick in some 
flowers of that he hath learned abroad into the 
customs of his own country. 



XIX— OF EMPIRE 

It is a miserable state of mind to have few things 
to desire, and many things to fear; and yet that 
commonly is the case of kings, who, being, at the 
highest, want matter of desire, which makes their 
minds more languishing; and have many repre- 
sentations of perils and shadows, which makes their 
minds the less clear; and this is one reason, also, 
of that effect which the Scripture speaketh of, "that 
the king's heart is inscrutable;" for multitude of 
jealousies, and lack of some predominant desire, 
that should marshal and put in order all the rest, 
maketh any man's heart hard to find or sound. 
Hence it comes, likewise, that princes many times 
make themselves desires, and set their hearts upon 
toys: sometimes upon a building; sometimes upon 
erecting of an order; sometimes upon the advancing 
of a person; sometimes upon obtaining excellency 
in some art or feat of the hand,— as Nero for 
playing on the harp; Domitian for certainty of the 
hand with the arrow; Commodus for playing at 
fence; Caracalla for driving chariots, and the like. 
This seemeth incredible unto those that know not 
the principle, that the mind of man is more cheered 
and refreshed by profiting in small things than by 

82 



OFEMPIRE 83 

standing at a stay in great. We see, also, that 
kings that have been fortunate conquerors in their 
first years, it being not possible for them to go 
forward infinitely, but that they must have some 
check or arrest in their fortunes, turn in their latter 
years to be superstitious and melancholy; as did 
Alexander the Great, Diocletian, and, in our mem- 
ory, Charles the Fifth, and others; for he that is 
used to go forward, and findeth a stop, falleth out 
of his own favor, and is not the thing he was. 

To speak now of the true temper of empire, it is 
a thing rare and hard to keep, for both temper and 
distemper consist of contraries; but it is one thing 
to mingle contraries, another to interchange them. 
The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of 
excellent instruction. Vespasian asked him, "What 
was Nero's overthrow.^" He answered, "Nero 
could touch and tune the harp well; but in govern- 
ment sometimes he used to wind the pins too high, 
sometimes to let them down too low." And cer- 
tain it is, that nothing destroyeth authority so much 
as the unequal and untimely interchange of power 
pressed too far, and relaxed too much. 

This is true, that the wisdom of all these latter 
times in princes' affairs is rather fine deliveries, and 
shiftings of dangers and mischiefs, when they are 
near, than solid and grounded courses to keep them 
aloof; but this is but to try masteries with fortune, 



84 BACON'S ESSAYS 

and let men beware how they neglect and suffer 
matter of trouble to be prepared. For no man can 
forbid the spark, nor tell whence it may come. 
The difficulties in princes' business are many and 
great; but the greatest difficulty is often in their 
own mind. For it is common with princes (saith 
Tacitus) to will contradictories: ^' Sunt plerumque 
regufn voluntates vehementes, et inter se contraries; 
for it is the solecism of power to think to command 
the end, and yet not to endure the mean. 

Kings have to deal with their neighbors, their 
wives, their children, their prelates or clergy, their 
nobles, their second nobles or gentlemen, their mer- 
chants, their commons, and their men of war; and 
from all these arise dangers, if care and circum- 
spection be not used. 

First, for their neighbors, there can no general 
rule be given (the occasions are so variable), save 
one which ever holdeth; which is, that princes do 
keep due sentinel, that none of their neighbors do 
overgrow so (by increase of territory, by embracing 
of trade, by approaches, or the like), as they become 
more able to annoy them than they were; and this 
is generally the work of standing counsels to fore- 
see and to hinder it. During that triumvirate of 
kings. King Henry the Eighth of England, Francis 
the First, King of France, and Charles the Fifth, 
Emperor, there was such a watch kept that none 



• OFEMPIRE 85 

of the three could win a palm of ground, but the 
other two would straightways balance it, either 
by confederation, or, if need were, by a war; and 
would not, in any wise, take up peace at interest; 
and the like was done by that league (which Guic- 
ciardini saith was the security of Italy) made be- 
tween Ferdinando, King of Naples, Lorenzius 
Medicis, and Ludovicus Sforza, potentates, the 
one of Florence, the other of Milan. Neither is 
the opinion of some of the schoolmen to be received, 
that a war can not justly be made, but upon a 
precedent injury or provocation; for there is no 
question, but a just fear of an imminent danger, 
though there be no blow given, is a lawful cause 
of a war. 

For their wives, there are cruel examples of 
them. Livia is infamed for the poisoning of her 
husband; Roxolana, Solyman's wife, was the destruc- 
tion of that renowned prince, Sultan Mustapha, 
and otherwise troubled his house and succession; 
Edward the Second of England's Queen had the 
principal hand in the deposing and murder of her 
husband. 

This kind of danger is then to be feared chiefly 
when the wives have plots for the raising of their 
own children, or else that they be advoutresses. 

For their children, the tragedies likewise of dan- 
gers from them have been many; and generally 



86 BACON'S ESSAYS 

the entering of fathers into suspicion of their chil- 
dren hath been ever unfortunate. The destruction 
of Mustapha (that we named before) was so fatal 
to Solyman's Hne, as the succession of the Turks 
from Solyman until this day is suspected to be 
untrue, and of strange blood; for that Selymus 
the Second was thought to be supposititious. The 
destruction of Crispus, a young prince of rare 
towardness, by Constantinus the Great, his father, 
was in like manner fatal to his house; for both 
Constantinus and Constance, his sons, died violent 
deaths; and Constantius, his other son, did little 
better, who died indeed of sickness, but after that 
Julianus had taken arms against him. The destruc- 
tion of Demetrius, son to Philip the Second of 
Macedon, turned upon the father, who died of 
repentance. And many like examples there are; 
but few or none where the fathers had good by 
such distrust, except it were where the sons were 
up in open arms against them; as was Selymus 
the First against Bajazet, and the three sons of 
Henry the Second, King of England. 

For their prelates, when they are proud and 
great, there is also danger from them; as it was 
in the times of Anselmus and Thomas Becket, 
Archbishops of Canterbury, who, with their crosiers, 
did almost try it with the king's sword; and yet they 
had to deal with stout and haughty kings: William 



OF EMPIRE 87 

Rufus, Henry the First, and Henry the Second. 
The danger is not from that state, but where it 
hath a dependence of foreign authority; or where 
the churchmen come in and are elected, not by the 
collation of the king, or particular patrons, but 
by the people. 

For their nobles, to keep them at a distance it 
is not amiss; but to depress them may make a king 
more absolute, but less safe, and less able to per- 
form anything that he desires. I have noted it 
in my History of King Henry the Seventh of England, 
who depressed his nobility, whereupon it came to 
pass that his times were full of difficulties and 
troubles; for the nobility, though they continued 
loyal unto him, yet did they not cooperate with 
him in his business; so that, in effect, he was fain 
to do all things himself. 

For their second nobles, there is not much danger 
from them, being a body dispersed. They may 
sometimes discourse high, but that doth little hurt; 
besides, they are a counterpoise to the higher nobil- 
ity, that they grow not too potent; and, lastly, be- 
ing the most immediate in authority with the com- 
mon people, they do best temper popular com- 
motions. 

For their merchants, they are vena porta; and 
if they flourish not, a kingdom may have good 
limbs, but will have empty veins, and nourish 



88 BACON'S ESSAYS 

little. Taxes and imposts upon them do seldom 
good to the king's revenue, for that which he wins 
in the hundred he loseth in the shire; the particu- 
lar rates being increased, but the total bulk of 
trading rather decreased. 

For their commons, there is little danger from 
them, except it be where they have great and potent 
heads; or where you meddle with the point of reli- 
gion, or their customs, or means of life. 

For their men of war, it is a dangerous state 
where they live and remain in a body, and are 
used to donatives; whereof we see examples in 
the Janizaries and Praetorian bands of Rome; 
but trainings of men, and arming them in several 
places, and under several commanders, and without 
donatives, are things of defence and no danger. 

Princes are like to heavenly bodies, which cause 
good or evil times; and which have much venera- 
tion, but no rest. All precepts concerning kings 
are in effect comprehended in those two remem- 
brances, "Memento quod es homo;'^ and "Memento 
quod es Deus," or "vice Dei;" the one bridleth 
their power and the other their will. 



XX— OF COUNSEL 

The greatest trust between man and man is 
the trust of giving counsel; for in other confidences 
men commit the parts of life, their lands, their 
goods, their children, their credit, some particular 
affair; but to such as they make their counselors 
they commit the whole; by how much the more 
they are obliged to all faith and integrity. The 
wisest princes need not think it any diminution 
to their greatness, or derogation to their sufficiency 
to rely upon counsel. God himself is not without, 
but hath made it one of the great names of His 
blessed Son, "The Counselor." Solomon hath 
pronounced that, "in counsel is stability." Things 
will have their first or second agitation: if they 
be not tossed upon the arguments of counsel, they 
will be tossed upon the waves of fortune, and be 
full of inconstancy, doing and undoing, like the 
reeling of a drunken man. Solomon's son found 
the force of counsel, as his father saw the necessity 
of it; for the beloved kingdom of God was first 
rent and broken by ill counsel; upon which counsel 
there are set for our instruction the two marks 
whereby bad counsel is for ever best discerned, 

89 



90 BACON'S ESSAYS 

that it was young counsel for the persons, and 
violent counsel for the matter. 

The ancient times do set forth in figure both 
the incorporation and inseparable conjunction of 
counsel with kings, and the wise and politic use 
of counsel by kings; the one, in that they say Jupiter 
did marry Metis, which signifieth counsel; whereby 
they intend that sovereignty is married to counsel; 
the other in that which followeth, which was thus: 
they say, after Jupiter was married to Metis, she 
conceived by him and was with child; but Jupiter 
suffered her not to stay till she brought forth, but 
eat her up; whereby he became himself with child, 
and was delivered of Pallas armed, out of his head. 
Which monstrous fable containeth a secret of 
empire, how kings are to make use of their council 
of state; that first, they ought to refer matters unto 
them, which is the first begetting or impregnation; 
but when they are elaborate, moulded, and shaped 
in the womb of their counsel, and grow ripe and 
ready to be brought forth, that then they suffer 
not their council to go through with the resolution 
and direction, as if it depended on them; but take 
the matter back into their own hands, and make 
it appear to the world, that the decrees and final 
directions (which, because they come forth with 
prudence and power, are resembled to Pallas armed), 
proceeded from themselves; and not only from 



OF COUNSEL 91 

their authority, but (the more to add reputation 
to themselves) from their head and device. 

Let us now speak of the inconveniences of coun- 
sel, and of the remedies. The inconveniences 
that have been noted in calling and using counsel 
are three: first, the revealing of affairs, v^hereby 
they become less secret; secondly, the weakening 
of the authority of princes, as if they were less of 
themselves; thirdly, the danger of being unfaith- 
fully counseled, and more for the good of them 
that counsel than of him that is counseled; for 
which inconveniences, the doctrine of Italy, and 
practice of France, in some kings' times, hath 
introduced cabinet councils; a remedy worse than 
the disease. 

As to secrecy, princes are not bound to commu- 
nicate all matters with all counselors, but may 
extract and select; neither is it necessary that he 
that cons-ulteth what he should do, should declare 
what he will do; but let princes beware that the 
unsecreting of their affairs comes not from them- 
selves; and, as for cabinet councils, it may be their 
motto, " Plenus rimarum sum:" one futile person, 
that maketh it his glory to tell, will do more hurt 
than many that know it their duty to conceal. It 
is true, there be some affairs which require extreme 
secrecy, which will hardly go beyond one or two 
persons besides the king. Neither are those coun- 



92 BACON'S ESSAYS 

sels unprosperous; for, besides the secrecy, they 
commonly go on constantly in one spirit of direc- 
tion without distraction; but then it must be a 
prudent king, such as is able to grind with a hand- 
mill; and those inward counselors had need also 
to be wise men, and especially true and trusty to 
the king's ends; as it was with King Henry the 
Seventh of England, who, in his greatest business, 
imparted himself to none, except it were to Morton 
and Fox. 

For weakening of authority, the fable showeth 
the remedy; nay, the majesty of kings is rather 
exalted than diminished when they are in the chair 
of council; neither was there ever prince bereaved 
of his dependencies by his council, except where 
there hath been either an over-greatness in one 
counselor, or an over-strict combination in divers, 
which are things soon found and holpen. 

For the last inconvenience, that men will counsel 
with an eye to themselves; certainly, "«o« inveniet 
■{idem super terram,'''' is meant of the nature of times, 
and not of all particular persons. There be that 
are in nature faithful and sincere, and plain and 
direct, not crafty and involved: let princes, above 
all, draw to themselves such natures. Besides, 
counselors are not commonly so united, but that 
one counselor keepeth sentinel over another; so 
that if any do counsel out of faction or private 



OF COUNSEL 93 

ends, it commonly comes to the king's ear; but the 
best remedy is, if princes know their counselors, 
as well as their counselors know them: — 

** Principis est virtus maxima nosse suos." 

And on the other side, counselors should not be 
too speculative into their sovereign's person. The 
true composition of a counselor is, rather to be 
skilful in their master's business than in his nature; 
for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed 
his humor. It is of singular use to princes, if they 
take the opinions of their council both separately 
and together; for private opinion is more free, but 
opinion before others is more reverend. In private, 
men are rhore bold in their own humors; and in 
consort, men are more obnoxious to others' hu- 
mors; therefore it is good to take both; and of the 
inferior sort rather in private, to preserve freedom; 
of the greater, rather in consort, to preserve respect. 
It is in vain for princes to take counsel concerning 
matters, if they take no counsel likewise concern- 
ing persons; for all matters are as dead images; 
and the life of the execution of affairs resteth in 
the good choice of persons. Neither is it enough 
to consult concerning persons, secundum genera^ 
as in an idea or mathematical description, what 
the kind and character of the person should be; 
for the greatest errors are committed, and the 



94 BACON'S ESSAYS 

most judgment is shown, in the choice of individuals. 
It was truly said, "Optimi consiliarii mortui:" 
"books will speak plain when counselors blanch;" 
therefore it is good to be conversant in them, spe- 
cially the books of such as themselves have been 
actors upon the stage. 

The councils at this day in most places are but 
familiar meetings, where matters are rather talked 
on than debated; and they run too swift to the 
order or act of council. It were better that in 
causes of weight, the matter were propounded one 
day and not spoken to till the next day; " I72 node 
consilium;" so was it done in the commission of 
union between England and Scotland, which was 
a grave and orderly assembly. I commend set 
days for petitions; for both it gives the suitors more 
certainty for their attendance, and it frees the 
meetings for matters of estate, that they may hoc 
agere. In choice of committees for ripening busi- 
ness for the council, it is better to choose indifferent 
persons, than to make an indifferency by putting 
in those that are strong on both sides. I commend, 
also, standing commissions; as for trade, for treas- 
ure, for war, for suits, for some provinces; for 
where there be divers particular councils, and but 
one council of estate (as it is in Spain), they are in 
effect no more than standing commissions, save 
that they have greater authority. Let such as 



OF COUNSEL 95 

are to inform councils out of their particular pro- 
fessions (as lawyers, seamen, mintmen, and the 
like) be first heard before committees; and then, 
as occasion serves, before the council; and let them 
not come in multitudes, or in a tribunitious man- 
ner; for that is to clamor councils, not to inform 
them. A long table and a square table, or seats 
about the walls, seem things of form, but are things 
of substance; for at a long table a few at the upper 
end, in effect, sway all the business; but in the 
other form there is more use of the counselors' 
opinions that sit lower. A king, when he presides 
in council, let him bevv^are how he opens his own 
inclination too much in that which he propoundeth; 
for else counselors will but take the wind of him, 
and, instead of giving free counsel, will sing him a 
song of placebo. 



XXI— OF DELAYS 

Fortune is like the market, where, many times, 
if you can stay a little, the price will fall; and again, 
it is sometimes like Sibylla's offer, which at first 
offereth the commodity at full, then consumeth 
part and part, and still holdeth up the price; for 
occasion (as it is in the common verse) "turneth 
a bald noddle, after she hath presented her locks 
in front, and no hold taken;" or, at least, turneth 
the handle of the bottle first to be received, and 
after the belly, which is hard to clasp. There is 
surely no greater wisdom than well to time the be- 
ginnings and onsets of things. Dangers are no 
more light, if they once seem light; and more dan- 
gers have deceived men than forced them; nay, it 
were better to meet some dangers half-way, though 
they come nothing near, than to keep too long a 
watch upon their approaches; for if a man watch 
too long, it is odds he will fall asleep. On the other 
side, to be deceived with too long shadows (as 
some have been when the moon was low, and shone 
on their enemies' back), and so to shoot off before 
the time; or to teach dangers to come on by over 
early buckling towards them, is another extreme. 
The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we 

96 



OF DELAYS 97 

said) must ever be well weighed; ana generally it 
is good to commit the beginnings of all great actions 
to Argus with his hundred eyes, and the ends to 
Briareus with his hundred hands, first to watch 
and then to speed; for the helmet of Pluto, which 
maketh the politic man go invisible, is secrecy 
in the council, and celerity in the execution; for 
when things are once come to the execution, there 
is no secrecy comparable to celerity; like the motion 
of a bullet in the air, which flieth so swift as it out- 
runs the eye. 



XXII~OF CUNNING 

We take cunning for a sinister, or crooked wis- 
dom; and, certainly, there is great difference be- 
tween a cunning man and a wise man, not only 
in point of honesty, but in point of ability. There 
be that can pack the cards, and yet can not play 
well; so there are some that are good in canvasses 
and factions, that are otherwise weak men. Again, 
it is one thing to understand persons, and another 
thing to understand matters; for many are perfect 
in men's humors that are not greatly capable of 
the real part of business, which is the constitution 
of one that hath studied men more than books. 
Such men are fitter for practice than for counsel, 
and they are good but in their own alley. Turn 
them to new men, and they have lost their aim; 
so as the old rule, to know a fool from a wise man, 
"Mitte ambos nudos ad ignotos, et videbts,'' doth 
scarce hold for them; and, because these cunning 
men are like haberdashers of small wares, it is not 
amiss to set forth their shop. 

It is a point of cunning to wait upon him with 
whom you speak with your eye, as the Jesuits 
give it in precept; for there be many wise men that 
have secret hearts and transparent countenances; 



OFCUNNING 99 

yet this would be done with a demure abasing of 
your eye sometimes, as the Jesuits also do use. 

Another is, that when you have anything to 
obtain of present despatch, you entertain and amuse 
the party with whom you deal with some other 
discourse, that he be not too much awake to make 
objections. I knew a counselor and secretary that 
never came to Queen Elizabeth of England, with 
bills to sign, but he would always first put her into 
some discourse of estate, that she might the less 
mind the bills. 

The like surprise may be made by moving 
things when the party is in haste, and can not stay 
to consider advisedly of that is moved. 

If a man would cross a business that he doubts 
some other would handsomely and effectually move, 
let him pretejid to wish it well, and move it himself, 
in such sort as may foil it. 

The breaking off in the midst of that one was 
about to say, as if he took himself up, breeds a 
greater appetite in him with whom you confer to 
know more. 

And because it works better when anything 
seemeth to be gotten from you by question than 
if you offer it of yourself, you may lay a bait for a 
question, by showing another visage and counte- 
nance than you are wont; to the end, to give occa- 
sion for the party to ask what the matter is of the 



loo BACON'S ESSAYS 

change, as Nehemiah did: "And I had not, before 
that time, been sad before the king." 

In things that are tender and unpleasing, it is 
good to break the ice by some whose words are of 
less weight, and to reserve the more weighty voice 
to come in as by chance, so that he may be asked 
the question upon the other's speech; as Nar- 
cissus did, in relating to Claudius the marriage 
of Messalina and Silius. 

In things that a man would not be seen in him- 
self, it is a point of cunning to borrow the name 
of the world; as to say, "The world says," or "There 
is a speech abroad." 

I knew one, that when he wrote a letter, he 
would put that which was most material in a post- 
script, as if it had been a by-matter. 

I knew another, that when he came to have 
speech, he would pass over that that he intended 
most; and go forth and come back again, and speak 
of it as a thing that he had almost forgot. 

Some procure themselves to be surprised at 
such times as it is like the party that they work 
upon will suddenly come upon them, and to be 
found with a letter in their hand, or doing some- 
what which they are not accustomed, to the end 
they may be apposed of those things which of them- 
selves they are desirous to utter. 

It is a point of cunning to let fall those words 



OF CUNNING loi 

in a man's own name, which he would have another 
man learn and use, and thereupon take advantage. 
I knew two that were competitors for the secre- 
tary's place in Queen Elizabeth's time, and yet 
kept good quarter between themselves, and would 
confer one with another upon the business; and 
the one of them said, that to be a secretary in the 
declination of a monarchy was a ticklish thing, 
and that he did not affect it; the other straight 
caught up those words, and discoursed with divers 
of his friends, that he had no reason to desire to 
be secretary in the declination of a monarchy. 
The first man took hold of it, and found means 
it was told the queen, who, hearing of a declination 
of a monarchy, took it so ill, as she would never 
after hear of the other's suit. 

There is a cunning, which we in England call 
"the turning of the cat in the pan;" which is, when 
that which a man says to another, he lays it as 
if another had said it to him; and, to say truth, 
it is not easy, when such a matter passed between 
two, to make it appear from which of them it first 
moved and began. 

It is a way that some men have, to glance and 
dart at others by justifying themselves by nega- 
tives; as to say, "This I do not;" as Tigellinus 
did towards Burrhus: "Se non diversas spes, sed 
incolumitatem imperatoris simpliciter spectare." 



102 BACON'S ESSAYS 

Some nave in readiness so many tales and stories, 
as there is nothing they would insinuate, but they 
can wrap it into a tale; which serveth both to keep 
themselves more in guard, and to make others 
carry it with more pleasure. 

It is a good point of cunning for a man to shape 
the answer he would have in his own words and 
propositions; for it makes the other party stick the 
less. 

It is strange how long some men will lie in wait 
to speak somewhat they desire to say; and how 
far about they will fetch, and how many other 
matters they will beat over to come near it. It is 
a thing of great patience, but yet of much use. 

A sudden, bold, and unexpected question doth 
many times surprise a man, and lay him open. 
Like to him, that, having changed his name, and 
walking in Paul's, another suddenly came behind 
him and called him by his true name, whereat 
straightways he looked back. 

But these small wares and petty points of cun- 
ning are infinite, and it were a good deed to make 
a list of them; for that nothing doth more hurt in 
a state than that cunning men pass for wise. 

But certainly, some there are that know the 
resorts and falls of business that can not sink into 
the main of it; like a house that hath convenient 
stairs and entries, but never a fair room. There- 



OF CUNNING 103 

fore you shall see them find out pretty looses in 
the conclusion, but are noways able to examine or 
debate matters; and yet commonly they take ad- 
vantage of their inability, and would be thought 
wits of direction. Some build rather upon the 
abusing of others, and (as we now say) putting 
tricks upon them, than upon soundness of their 
own proceedings; but Solomon saith: " Prudens 
advertit ad gressus suos; stultus divertit ad dolos." 



XXIII— OF WISDOM FOR A MAN'S 

SELF 

An ant is a wise creature for itself, but it is a 
shrewd thing in an orchard or garden; and cer- 
tainly, men that are great lovers of themselves 
waste the public. Divide with reason between self- 
love and society; and be so true to thyself as thou 
be not false to others, specially to thy king and 
country. It is a poor center of a man's actions, 
himself. It is right earth; for that only stands 
fast upon his own center; whereas all things that 
have affinity with the heavens, move upon the 
center of another, which they benefit. The re- 
ferring of all to a man's self is more tolerable in a 
sovereign prince, because themselves are not only 
themselves, but their good and evil is at the peril 
of the public fortune; but it is a desperate evil in 
a servant to a prince, or a citizen in a republic; 
for whatsoever affairs pass such a man's hands, 
he crooketh them to his own ends, which must 
needs be often eccentric to the ends of his master 
or state. Therefore, let princes or states choose 
such servants as have not this mark; except they 
mean their service should be made but the acces- 
sory. That which maketh the effect more per- 

104 



OF WISDOM FOR MAN'S SELF 105 

nicious is, that all proportion is lost. It were 
disproportion enough for the servant's good to be 
preferred before the master's; but yet it is a greater 
extreme, when a little good of the servant shall 
carry things against a great good of the master. 
And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, 
ambassadors, generals, and other false and cor- 
rupt servants; which set a bias upon their bowl, of 
their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow 
of their master's great and important affairs; and, 
for the most part, the good such servants receive 
is after the model of their own fortune; but the hurt 
they sell for that good is after the model of their 
master's fortune. And certainly, it is the nature 
of extreme self-lovers, as they will set a house on 
fire, an it were but to roast their eggs; and yet these 
men many times hold credit with their masters, 
because their study is but to please them, and profit 
themselves; and for either respect they will abandon 
the good of their aff^airs. 

Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches 
thereof, a depraved thing. It is the wisdom of 
rats, that will be sure to leave a house somewhat 
before it fall; it is the wisdom of the fox, that thrusts 
out the badger who digged and made room for 
him; it is the wisdom of crocodiles, that shed tears 
when they would devour. But that which is spe- 
cially to be noted is, that those which (as Cicero 



io6 BACON'S ESSAYS 

says of Pompey) are '' sui amantes, sine rivali^" 
are many times unfortunate; and whereas they 
have all their times sacrificed to themselves, they 
become in the end themselves sacrifices to the 
inconstancy of fortune, whose wings they thought 
by their self-wisdom to have pinioned. 



XXIV— OF INNOVATIONS 

As the births of living creatures at first are ill- 
shapen, so are all innovations, which are the births 
of time; yet, notwithstanding, as those that first 
bring honor into their family are commonly more 
worthy than most that succeed, so the first prece- 
dent (if it be good) is seldom attained by imitation; 
for ill to man's nature as it stands perverted, hath 
a natural motion strongest in continuance, but 
good, as a forced motion, strongest at first. Surely, 
every medicine is an innovation, and he that will 
not apply new remedies must expect new evils, 
for time is the greatest innovator; and if time, of 
course, alter things to the worse, and wisdom and 
counsel shall not alter them to the better, what 
shall be the end ? It is true, that what is settled 
by custom, though it be not good, yet, at least, 
it is fit; and those things which have long gone to- 
gether, are, as it were, confederate within them- 
selves; whereas new things piece not so well; but, 
though they help by their utility, yet they trouble 
by their inconformity; besides, they are like strangers, 
more admired and less favored. All this is true, 
if time stood still, which, contrariwise, moveth so 
round, that a froward retention of custom is as 

107 



io8 BACON'S ESSAYS 

turbulent a thing as an innovation; and they that 
reverence too much old times are but a scorn to 
the new. It were good, therefore, that men in 
their innovations would follow the example of 
time itself, which indeed innovateth greatly, but 
quietly, and by degrees scarce to be perceived; 
for, otherwise, whatsoever is new is unlooked for, 
and ever it mends some and pairs other; and he 
that is holpen, takes it for a fortune, and thanks 
the time; and he that is hurt, for a wrong, and 
imputeth it to the author. It is good, also, not 
to try experiments in states, except the necessity 
be urgent, or the utility evident; and well to beware 
that it be the reformation that draweth on the 
change, and not the desire of change that pretendeth 
the reformation; and lastly, that the novelty, though 
it be not rejected, yet be held for a suspect, and, 
as the Scripture saith, "That we make a stand upon 
the ancient way, and then look about us, and dis- 
cover what is the straight and right way, and so 
to walk in it." 



XXV— OF DESPATCH 

Affected despatch is one of the most danger- 
ous things to business that can be; it is Hke that 
which the physicians call predigestion, or hasty 
digestion, which is sure to fill the body full of 
crudities, and secret seeds of diseases. Therefore, 
measure not despatch by the times of sitting, but 
by the advancement of the business; and as in races, 
it is not the large stride, or high lift, that makes 
the speed, so in business, the keeping close to the 
matter, and not taking of it too much at once, pro- 
cureth despatch. It is the care of some, only to 
come off speedily for the time, or to contrive some 
false periods of business, because they may seem 
men of despatch; but it is one thing to abbreviate 
by contracting, another by cutting ofi^; and business 
so handled at several sittings, or meetings, goeth 
commonly backward and forward in an unsteady 
manner. I knew a wise man that had it for a 
byword, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion, 
"Stay a little, that we may make an end the sooner." 

On the other side, true despatch is a rich thing; 
for time is the measure of business, as money is of 
wares; and business is bought at a dear hand where 
there is small despatch. The Spartans and Span- 

109 



no BACON'S ESSAYS 

iards have been noted to be of small despatch: 
"Ml venga la muerte de Spagna;^' "Let my death 
come from Spain;" for then it will be sure to be 
long in coming." 

Give good hearing to those that give the first 
information in business, and rather direct them 
in the beginning, than interrupt them in the con- 
tinuance of their speeches; for he that is put out 
of his ov^n order v^ill go forv^ard and backvs^ard, 
and be more tedious while he waits upon his mem- 
ory, than he could have been if he had gone on in 
his own course; but sometimes it is seen that the 
moderator is more troublesome than the actor. 

Iterations are commonly loss of time; but there 
is no such gain of time as to iterate often the state 
of the question; for it chaseth away many a frivo- 
lous speech as it is coming forth. Long and cu- 
rious speeches are as fit for despatch as a robe, or 
mantle, with a long train, is for a race. Prefaces, 
and passages, and excusations, and other speeches 
of reference to the person, are great wastes of time; 
and though they seem to proceed of modesty, they 
are bravery. Yet beware of being too material 
when there is any impediment, or obstruction in 
men's wills; for preoccupation of mind ever re- 
quireth preface of speech, like a fomentation to 
make the unguent enter. 

Above all things, order and distribution, and 



OF DESPATCH iii 

singling out of parts, is the life of despatch, so as 
the distribution be not too subtle; for he that doth 
not divide will never enter v^ell into business; and 
he that divideth too much will never come out of 
it clearly. To choose time is to save time; and 
an unseasonable motion is but beating the air. 
There be three parts of business, — the preparation; 
the debate, or examination; and the perfection. 
Whereof, if you look for despatch, let the middle 
only be the work of many, and the first and last the 
work of few. The proceeding, upon somewhat 
conceived in writing, doth for the most part facilitate 
despatch; for though it should be wholly rejected, 
yet that negative is more pregnant of direction 
than an indefinite, as ashes are more generative 
than dust. 



XXVI— OF SEEMING WISE 

It hath been an opinion, that the French are 
wiser than they seem, and the Spaniards seem 
wiser than they are; but howsoever it be between 
nations, certainly it is so between man and man; 
for, as the apostle saith of godliness, " Having a 
show of godliness, but denying the power, thereof," 
so certainly there are, in points of wisdom and 
sufficiency, that do nothing, or little very solemnly, 
— " magno conatu nugas." It is a ridiculous thing, 
and fit for a satire to persons of judgment, to see 
what shifts these formalists have, and what pro- 
spectives to make superficies to seem body, that 
hath depth and bulk. Some are so close and 
reserved, as they will not show their wares but 
by a dark light, and seem always to keep back 
somewhat; and when they know within themselves 
they speak of that they do not well know, would 
nevertheless seem to others to know of that which 
they may not well speak. Some help themselves 
with countenance and gesture, and are wise by 
signs; as Cicero saith of Piso, that when he answered 
him, he fetched one of his brows up to his fore- 
head, and bent the other down to his chin: " Re- 
spondes, altera ad frontem sublato, altera ad mentum 

112 



OF SEEMING WISE 113 

depresso supercilio; crudelitatem tibi non placere. ' 
Some think to bear it by speaking a great word, 
and being peremptory; and go on, and take by 
admittance that which they can not make good. 
Some, whatsoever is beyond their reach, will seem 
to despise or make light of it as impertinent or 
curious, and so would have their ignorance seem 
judgment. Some are never without a difference, 
and commonly by amusing men with a subtlety, 
blanch the matter; of whom A. Gellius saith, " Homi- 
nem delirum, qui verborum minutiis rerum frangit 
pondera." Of which kind also Plato, in his Pro- 
tagoras, bringeth in Prodicus in scorn, and maketh 
him make a speech that consisteth of distinctions 
from the beginning to the end. Generally such 
men, in all deliberations, find ease to be of the 
negative side, and affect a credit to object and 
foretell difficulties; for when propositions are denied, 
there is an end of them, but if they be allowed, it 
requireth a new work; which false point of wisdom 
is the bane of business. To conclude, there is no 
decaying merchant, or inward beggar, hath so many 
tricks to uphold the credit of their wealth, as these 
empty persons have to maintain the credit of their 
sufficiency. Seeming wise men may make shift 
to get opinion, but let no man choose them for 
employment; for certainly, you were better take for 
business a man somewhat absurd than over-formal. 



XXVII— OF FRIENDSHIP 

It had been hard for him that spake it, to have 
put more truth and untruth together in few words 
than in that speech: "Whosoever is delighted in 
soHtude, is either a wild beast or a god:" for it is 
most true, that a natural and secret hatred and 
aversion towards society in any man hath some- 
what of the savage beast; but it is most untrue, 
that it should have any character at all of the divine 
nature, except it proceed, not out of a pleasure in 
solitude, but out of a love and desire to sequester 
a man's self for a higher conversation; such as is 
found to have been falsely and feignedly in some 
of the heathen; as Epimenides, the Candian; Numa, 
the Roman; Empedocles, the Sicilian; and Apol- 
lonius, of Tyana; and truly and really in' divers 
of the ancient hermits and holy fathers of the church. 
But little do men perceive what solitude is, and 
how far it extendeth; for a crowd is not company, 
and faces are but a gallery of pictures, and talk 
but a tinkling cymbal, where there is no love. The 
Latin adage meeteth with it a little: "Magna 
civitas, magna solttudo:" because in a great town 
friends are scattered, so that there is not that fel- 
lowship, for the most part, which is in less neighbor- 
ly 



OF FRIENDSHIP 115 

hoods: but we may go further, and affirm most 
truly, that it is a mere and miserable solitude to 
want true friends, without which the world is but 
a wilderness; and even in this sense also of soli- 
tude, whosoever in the frame of his nature and 
affections is unfit for friendship, he taketh it of 
the beasts, and not from humanity. 

A principal fruit of friendship is the ease and 
discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, 
which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. 
We know diseases of stoppings and suffocations 
are the most dangerous in the body, and it is not 
much otherwise in the mind. You may take sarza 
to open the liver, steel to open the spleen, flower 
of sulphur for the lungs, castoreum for the brain, 
but no receipt openeth the heart but a true friend, 
to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, 
suspicions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the 
heart to oppress it, in a kind of civil shrift or 
confession. 

It is a strange thing to observe how high a rate 
great kings and monarchs do set upon this fruit of 
friendship whereof we speak; so great, as they 
purchase it many times at the hazard of their own 
safety and greatness; for princes, in regard of the 
distance of their fortune from that of their subjects 
and servants, can not gather this fruit, except (to 
rhake themselves capable thereof) they raise some 



ii6 BACON'S ESSAYS 

persons to be as it were companions, and almost 
equals to themselves, which many times sorteth 
to inconvenience. The modern languages give 
unto such persons the name of favorites, or priva- 
does, as if it were matter of grace or conversation; 
but the Roman name attaineth the true use and 
cause thereof, naming them participes curarum; 
for it is that which tieth the knot. And we see 
plainly that this hath been done, not by weak and 
passionate princes only, but by the wisest and 
most politic that ever reigned, who have often- 
times joined to themselves some of their servants, 
whom both themselves have called friends, and 
allowed others likewise to call them in the same 
manner, using the word which is received between 
private men. 

L. Sylla, when he commanded Rome, raised 
Pompey (after surnamed the Great) to that height, 
that Pompey vaunted himself for Sylla's over- 
match; for when he had carried the consulship 
for a friend of his, against the pursuit of Sylla, and 
that Sylla did a little resent thereat, and began to 
speak great, Pompey turned upon him again, and, 
in effect, bade him be quiet; for that more men 
adored the sun rising than the sun setting. With 
Julius Caesar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that 
interest, as he set him down in his testament tor 
heir in remainder after his nephew; and this was 



OF FRIENDSHIP 117 

the man that had power with him to draw him 
forth to his death; for when Caesar would have 
discharged the senate, in regard of some ill presages, 
and specially a dream of Calphurnia, this man 
lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling 
him he hoped he would not dismiss the senate 
till his wife had dreamt a better dream; and it 
seemeth his favor was so great, as Antonius, in a 
letter which is recited verbatim in one of Cicero's 
Philippics, calleth him venefica, "witch," as if he 
had enchanted Caesar. Augustus raised Agrippa 
(though of mean birth) to that height, as, when 
he consulted with Maecenas about the marriage 
of his daughter Julia, Maecenas took the liberty 
to tell him, that he must either marry his daughter 
to Agrippa, or take away his life; there was no third 
way, he had made him so great. With Tiberius 
Caesar, Sejanus had ascended to that height, as 
they two were termed and reckoned as a pair of 
friends. Tiberius, in a letter to him, saith, "Hcbc 
pro amicitia nostra non occultavi/' and the whole 
senate dedicated an altar to Friendship, as to a 
goddess, in respect of the great dearness of friend- 
ship between them two. The like, or more, was 
between Septimius Severus and Plautianus; for he 
forced his eldest son to marry the daughter of 
Plautianus, and would often maintain Plautianus 
in doing affronts to his son; and did write, also, 



ii8 BACON'S ESSAYS 

in a letter to the senate, by these words: "I love 
the man so well, as I wish he may over-live me." 
Now, if these princes had been as a Trajan, or a 
Marcus Aurelius, a man might have thought that 
this had proceeded of an abundant goodness of 
nature; but being men so wise, of such strength 
and severity of mind, and so extreme lovers of 
themselves, as all these were, it proveth most plain- 
ly that they found their own felicity (though as 
great as ever happened to mortal men) but as an 
half-piece, except they might have a friend to make 
it entire; and yet, which is more, they were princes 
that had wives, sons, nephews; and yet all these 
could not supply the comfort of friendship. 

It is not to be forgotten what Comineus observ- 
eth of his first master, Duke Charles the Hardy, 
namely, that he would communicate his secrets 
with none, and, least of all, those secrets which 
troubled him most. Whereupon he goeth on, 
and saith, that towards his latter time, that close- 
ness did impair and a little perish his understand- 
ing. Surely, Comineus might have made the same 
judgment, also, if it had pleased him, of his second 
master, Louis the Eleventh, whose closeness was 
indeed his tormentor. The parable of Pythagoras 
is dark, but true: "Cor ne editof "Eat not the 
heart." Certainly, if a man would give it a hard 
phrase, those that want friends to open themselves 



OF FRIENDSHIP 119 

unto are cannibals of their own hearts; but one 
thing is most admirable (wherewith I will conclude 
this first fruit of friendship), which is, that this 
communicating of a man's self to his friend works 
two contrary effects, for it redoubleth joys, and 
cutteth griefs in halves; for there is no man that 
imparteth his joys to his friend, but he joyeth the 
more; and no man that imparteth his griefs to his 
friend, but he grieveth the less. So that it is, in 
truth, of operation upon a man's mind of like virtue 
as the alchemists used to attribute to their stone 
for man's body, that it worketh all contrary effects, 
but still to the good and benefit of nature. But 
yet, without praying in aid of alchemists, there is 
a manifest image of this in the ordinary course 
of nature; for, in bodies, union strengtheneth and 
cherisheth any natural action; and, on the other 
side, weakeneth and duUeth any violent impression; 
and even so it is of minds. 

The second fruit of friendship is healthful and 
sovereign for the understanding, as the first is for 
the affections; for friendship maketh indeed a fair 
day in the affections from storm and tempests, 
but it maketh daylight in the understanding, out 
of darkness and confusion of thoughts. Neither 
is this to be understood only of faithful counsel, 
which a man receiveth from his friend; but before 
you come to that, certain it is, that whosoever hath 



120 BACON'S ESSAYS 

his mind fraught with many thoughts, his wits and 
understanding do clarify and break up in the com- 
municating and discoursing with another; he tos- 
seth his thoughts more easily; he marshalleth them 
more orderly; he seeth how they look when they 
are turned into words; finally, he waxeth wiser 
than himself; and that more by an hour's discourse 
than by a day's meditation. It was well said by 
Themistocles to the king of Persia: "That speech 
was like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, 
whereby the imagery doth appear in figure; where- 
as in thoughts they lie but as in packs." Neither 
is this second fruit of friendship, in opening the 
understanding, restrained only to such friends as 
are able to give a man counsel (they indeed are best), 
but even without that a man learneth of himself, and 
bringeth his own thoughts to light, and whetteth his 
wits as against a stone, which itself cuts not. In a 
word, a man were better relate himself to a statue 
or picture, than to suffer his thoughts to pass in 
smother. 

Add now, to make this second fruit of friendship 
complete, that other point which lieth more open, 
and falleth within vulgar observation; which is 
faithful counsel from a friend. Heraclitus saith 
well, in one of his enigmas, "Dry light is ever the 
best;" and certain it is, that the light that a man 
receiveth by counsel from another, is drier and 



OF FRIENDSHIP 121 

purer than that which cometh from his own under- 
standing and judgment, which is ever infused and 
drenched in his affections and customs. So, as there 
is as much difference between the counsel that a 
friend giveth, and that a man giveth himself, as there 
is between the counsel of a friend and of a flatterer; 
for there is no such flatterer as is a man's self, and 
there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's 
self, as the liberty of a friend. Counsel is of two 
sorts, — the one concerning manners, the other con- 
cerning business; for the first, the best preservative 
to keep the mind in health, is the faithful admonition 
of a friend. The calling of a man's self to a strict 
account is a medicine sometimes too piercing and 
corrosive; reading good books of morality is a little 
flat and dead; observing our faults in others is 
sometimes improper for our case; but the best re- 
ceipt (best, I say, to work, and best to take), is the 
admonition of a friend. It is a strange thing to 
behold what gross errors and extreme absurdities 
many (especially of the greater sort) do commit 
for want of a friend to tell them of them, to the 
great damage both of their fame and fortune; for, 
as St. James saith, they are as men "that look 
sometimes into a glass, and presently forget their 
own shape and favor." As for business, a man 
may think, if he will, that two eyes see no more than 
one; or, that a gamester seeth always more than a 



122 BACON'S ESSAYS 

looker-on; or, that a man in anger is as wise as he 
that has said over the four and twenty letters; or, 
that a musket may be shot off as well upon the arm 
as upon a rest; and such other fond and high imagina- 
tions, to think himself all in all; but when all is 
done, the help of good counsel is that which setteth 
business straight. And if any man think that he 
will take counsel, but it shall be by pieces, asking 
counsel in one business of one man, and in another 
business of another man; it is well (that is to say, 
better, perhaps, than if he asked none at all); but 
he runneth two dangers, — one, that he shall not be 
faithfully counseled; for it is a rare thing, except it 
be from a perfect and entire friend, to have counsel 
given, but such as shall be bowed and crooked to 
some ends which he hath that giveth it; the other, 
that he shall have counsel given, hurtful and unsafe 
(though with good meaning), and mixed partly of 
mischief, and partly of remedy; even as if you 
would call a physician, that is thought good for the 
cure of the disease you complain of, but is unac- 
quainted with your body; and, therefore, may put 
you in a way for a present cure, but overthroweth 
your health in some other kind, and so cure the 
disease and kill the patient. But a friend, that is 
wholly acquainted with a man's estate, will beware, 
by furthering any present business, how he dasheth 
upon other inconvenience; and, therefore, rest not 



OF FRIENDSHIP 123 

upon scattered counsels; they will rather distract 
and mislead, than settle and direct. 

After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace 
in the affections, and support of the judgment), 
followeth the last fruit, which is like the pomegran- 
ate, full of many kernels; I mean aid, and bearing 
a part in all actions and occasions. Here the best 
way to represent to life the manifold use of friend- 
ship, is to cast and see how many things there are 
which a man can not do himself; and then it will 
appear that it was a sparing speech of the ancients 
to say, ''that a friend is another himself," for that 
a friend is far more than himself. Men have their 
time, and die many times in desire of some things 
which they principally take to heart; the bestowing 
of a child, the finishing of a work, or the like. If 
a man have a true friend, he may rest almost secure 
that the care of those things will continue after him; 
so that a man hath, as it were, two lives in his de- 
sires. A man hath a body, and that body is con- 
fined to a place; but where friendship is, all offices 
of life are, as it were, granted to him and his deputy, 
for he may exercise them by his friend. How 
many things are there, which a man can not, with 
any face or comeliness, say or do himself? A man 
can scarce allege his own merits with modesty, 
much less extol them; a man can not sometimes 
brook to supplicate, or beg, and a number of the 



124 BACON'S ESSAYS 

like; but all these things are graceful in a friend's 
mouth, which are blushing in a man's own. So, 
again, a man's person hath many proper relations 
which he can not put off. A man can not speak to 
his son but as a father; to his wife but as a husband; 
to his enemy but upon terms; whereas, a friend 
may speak as the case requires, and not as it sorteth 
with the person. But to enumerate these things 
were endless; I have given the rule, where a man 
can not fitly play his own part. If he have not a 
friend, he may quit the stage. 



XXVIII— OF EXPENSE 

Riches are for spending, and spending for honor 
and good actions; therefore, extraordinary expense 
must be Hmited by the worth of the occasion; for 
voluntary undoing may be as well for a man's coun- 
try as for the kingdom of heaven; but ordinary 
expense ought to be limited by a man's estate, and 
governed with such regard, as it be within his com- 
pass, and not subject to deceit and abuse of servants, 
and ordered to the best show, that the bills may be 
less than the estimation abroad. Certainly, if a 
man will keep but of even hand, his ordinary ex- 
penses ought to be but to the half of his receipts; 
and, if he think to wax rich, but to the third part. 
It is no baseness for the greatest to descend and 
look into their own estate. Some forbear it, not 
upon negligence alone, but doubting to bring them- 
selves into melancholy, in respect they shall find it 
broken; but wounds can not be cured without search- 
ing. He that can not look into his own estate at 
all, had need both choose well those whom he em- 
ployeth, and change them often; for new are more 
timorous, and less subtle. He that can look into 
his estate but seldom, it behooveth him to turn all 
to certainties. A man had need, if he be plentiful 

125 



126 BACON'S ESSAYS 

in some kind of expense, to be as saving again in 
some other: as, if he be plentiful in diet, to be 
saving in apparel; if he be plentiful in the hall, to 
be saving in the stable; and the like. For he that 
is plentiful in expenses of all kinds, will hardly 
be preserved from decay. In clearing of a man's 
estate, he may as v^ell hurt himself in being too 
sudden, as in letting it run on too long; for hasty 
selling is commonly as disadvantageable as interest. 
Besides, he that clears at once will relapse; for, 
finding himself out of straits, he will revert to his 
customs; but he that cleareth by degrees induceth 
a habit of frugality, and gaineth as well upon his 
mind as upon his estate. Certainly, who hath a 
state to repair, may not despise small things; and, 
commonly, it is less dishonorable to abridge petty 
charges, than to stoop to petty gettings. A man 
ought warily to begin charges, which once begun 
will continue; but in matters that return not, he 
may be more magnificent. 



XXIX— OF THE TRUE GREATNESS 
OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 

The speech of Themistocles, the Athenian, which 
was haughty and arrogant, in taking so much to 
himself, had been a grave and wise observation and 
censure, applied at large to others. Desired at a 
feast to touch a lute, he said, "He could not fiddle, 
but yet he could make a small town a great city." 
These words (holpen a little with a metaphor) may 
express two different abilities in those that deal in 
business of estate; for if a true survey be taken 
of counselors and statesmen, there may be found 
(though rarely) those which can make a small state 
great, and yet can not fiddle: as, on the other side 
there will be found a great many that can fiddle 
very cunningly, but yet are so far from being able 
to make a small state great, as their gift lieth the 
other way, — to bring a great and flourishing estate 
to ruin and decay. And certainly, those degenerate 
arts and shifts, whereby many counselors and gov- 
ernors gain both favor with their masters and es- 
timation with the vulgar, deserve no better name 
than fiddling; being things rather pleasing for the 
time, and graceful to themselves only, than tending 
to the weal and advancement of the state which 

127 



128 BACON'S ESSAYS 

they serve. There are also (no doubt) counselors 
and governors v^hich may be held sufficient, nego- 
tiis pares, able to manage affairs, and to keep them 
from precipices and manifest inconveniences; 
which, nevertheless, are far from the ability to raise 
and amplify an estate in power, means, and fortune. 
But be the workmen what they may be, let us speak 
of the work; that is, the true greatness of kingdoms 
and estates, and the means thereof An argument 
fit for great and mighty princes to have in their 
hand; to the end, that neither by overmeasuring 
their forces, they lose themselves in vain enterprises: 
nor, on the other side, by undervaluing them, they 
descend to fearful and pusilanimous counsels. 

The greatness of an estate, in bulk and territory, 
doth fall under measure; and the greatness of 
finances and revenue doth fall under computation. 
The population may appear by musters, and the 
number and greatness of cities and towns by cards 
and maps; but yet there is not anything amongst 
civil affairs more subject to error than the right 
valuation and true judgment concerning the power 
and forces of an estate. The Kingdom of Heaven 
is compared, not to any great kernel, or nut, but to 
a grain of mustard-seed; which is one of the least 
grains, but hath in it a property and spirit hastily 
to get up and spread. So are there states great in 
territory, and yet not apt to enlarge or command; 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 129 

and some that have but a small dimension of stem, 
and yet apt to be the foundations of great mon- 
archies. 

Walled towns, stored arsenals and armories, 
goodly races of horse, chariots of war, elephants, 
ordnance, artillery, and the like; all this is but a 
sheep in a lion's skin, except the breed and disposi- 
tion of the people be stout and warlike. Nay, num- 
ber itself in armies importeth not much, where the 
people is of weak courage; for, as Virgil saith, "It 
never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be." 
The army of the Persians in the plains of Arbela 
was such a vast sea of people, as it did somewhat 
astonish the commanders in Alexander's army, who 
came to him, therefore, and wished him to set upon 
them by night; but he answered, "He would not 
pilfer the victory;" and the defeat was easy. — 
When Tigranes, the Armenian, being encamped 
upon a hill with four hundred thousand men, dis- 
covered the army of the Romans, being not above 
fourteen thousand, marching towards him, he made 
himself merry with it, and said, "Yonder men are 
too many for an ambassage, and too few for a fight;" 
but before the sun set, he found them enow to give 
him the chase with infinite slaughter. Many are 
the examples of the great odds between number and 
courage; so that a man may truly make a judgment, 
that the principal point of greatness in any state is 



130 BACON'S ESSAYS 

to have a race of military men. Neither is money 
the sinews of war (as it is trivially said), where the 
sinews of men's arms, in base and effeminate people, 
are failing: for Solon said well to Croesus (when 
in ostentation he showed him his gold), "Sir, if any 
other come that hath better iron than you, he will 
be master of all this gold." Therefore, let any prince 
or state, think soberly of his forces, except his mil- 
itia of natives be of good and valiant soldiers; and 
let princes, on the other side, that have subjects of 
martial disposition, know their own strength, unless 
they be otherwise wanting unto themselves. As for 
mercenary forces (which is the help in this case), all 
examples show that, whatsoever estate or prince doth 
rest upon them, he may spread his feathers for a 
time, but he will mew them soon after. 

The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never 
meet; that the same people, or nation, should be 
both the lion's whelp and the ass between burdens; 
neither will it be, that a people overlaid with taxes 
should ever become valiant and martial. It is true 
that taxes, levied by consent of the estate, do abate 
men's courage less; as it hath been seen notably 
in the excises of the Low Countries, and, in some 
degree, in the subsidies of England; for, you must 
note, that we speak now of the heart, and not of the 
purse; so that, although the same tribute and tax, 
laid by consent or by imposing, be all one to the 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 131 

purse, yet it works diversely upon the courage. So 
that you may conclude, that no people overcharged 
with tribute is fit for empire. 

Let states that aim at greatness take heed how 
their nobility and gentlemen do multiply too fast; 
for that maketh the common subject grow to be a 
peasant and base swain, driven out of heart, and, 
in effect, but the gentleman's laborer. Even as you 
may see in coppice woods; if you leave your stad- 
dles too thick, you shall never have clean under- 
wood, but shrubs and bushes. So in countries, if 
the gentlemen be too many, the commons will be 
base; and you will bring it to that, that not the 
hundred poll will be fit for a helmet, especially as 
to the infantry, which is the nerve of an army; 
and so there will be great population and little 
strength. This which I speak of, hath been nowhere 
better seen than by comparing of England and 
France; whereof England, though far less in terri- 
tory and population, hath been, nevertheless, an 
overmatch; in regard, the middle people of England 
make good soldiers, which the peasants of France 
do not. And herein the device of King Henry 
the Seventh (whereof I have spoken largely in the 
history of his life) was profound and admirable; 
in making farms and houses of husbandry of a 
standard, that is, maintained with such a propor- 
tion of land unto them as may breed a subject to 



132 



BACON'S ESSAYS 



live in convenient plenty, and no servile condition, 
and to keep the plough in the hands of the owners, 
and not mere hirelings; and thus, indeed, you shall 
attain to Virgil's character, which he gives to ancient 
Italy : — 

"Terra potens armis atque ubere glebas." 

Neither is that state (which, for anything I know, 
is almost peculiar to England, and hardly to be 
found anywhere else, except it be, perhaps, in Po- 
land), to be passed over; I mean the state of free 
servants and attendants upon noblemen and gentle- 
men, which are noways inferior unto the yeomanry 
for arms; and, therefore, out of all question, the 
splendor and magnificence, and great retinues, and 
hospitality of noblemen and gentlemen received into 
custom, do much conduce unto martial greatness; 
whereas, contrariwise, the close and reserved living 
of noblemen and gentlemen causeth a penury of 
military forces. 

By all means, it is to be procured that the trunk 
of Nebuchadnezzar's tree of monarchy be great 
enough to bear the branches and the boughs; that 
is, that the natural subjects of the crown, or state, 
bear a sufficient proportion to the stranger subjects 
that they govern. Therefore, all states that are 
liberal of naturalization towards strangers are fit for 
empire; for to think that a handful of people can, 
with the greatest courage and policy in the world, 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 133 

embrace too large extent of dominion, it may hold 
for a time, but it will fail suddenly. The Spartans 
were a nice people in point of naturalization; where- 
by, while they kept their compass, they stood firm; 
but when they did spread, and their boughs were 
becoming too great for their stem, they became a 
windfall upon the sudden. Never any state w^as, 
in this point, so open to receive strangers into their 
body as were the Romans; therefore, it sorted with 
them accordingly, for they grew to the greatest 
monarchy. Their manner was to grant naturali- 
zation (which they called jus civitatis), and to grant 
it in the highest degree, that is, not only jus com- 
mercii, jus connuhii, jus hcereditatis; but, also, jus 
sujfragii, and jus honorum; and this not to singular 
persons alone, but likewise to whole families; yea, 
to cities and sometimes to nations. Add to this 
their custom of plantation of colonies, whereby the 
Roman plant was removed into the soil of other 
nations, and, putting both constitutions together, 
you will say, that it was not the Romans that spread 
upon the world, but it was the world that spread 
upon the Romans; and that was the sure way of 
greatness. I have marveled sometimes at Spain, 
how they clasp and contain so large dominions with 
so few natural Spaniards; but sure the whole com- 
pass of Spain is a very great body of a tree, far above 
Rome and Sparta at the first; and, besides, though 



134 



BACON'S ESSAYS 



they have not had that usage to naturaHze Hberally, 
yet they have that which is next to it; that is, to 
employ, almost indifferently, all nations in their 
militia of ordinary soldiers; yea, and sometimes 
in their highest commands; nay, it seemeth at this 
instant they are sensible of this want of natives, as by 
the pragmatical sanction, now published, appeareth. 

It is certain that sedentary and within-door arts, 
and delicate manufactures (that require rather the 
finger than the arm), have in their nature a contra- 
riety to a military disposition; and, generally, all 
warlike people are a little idle, and love danger 
better than travail; neither must they be too much 
broken of it, if they shall be preserved in vigor. 
Therefore, it was great advantage in the ancient 
states of Sparta, Athens, Rome, and others, that 
they had the use of slaves, which commonly did 
rid those manufactures; but that is abolished, in 
greatest part, by the Christian law. That which 
Cometh nearest to it is, to leave those arts chiefly to 
strangers (which, for that purpose, are the more 
easily to be received), and to contain the principal 
bulk of the vulgar natives within those three kinds, 
tillers of the ground, free servants, and handicrafts- 
men of strong and manly arts; as smiths, masons, 
carpenters, etc., not reckoning professed soldiers. 

But, above all, for empire and greatness, it im- 
porteth most, that a nation do profess arms as their 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 135 

principal honor, study, and occupation; for the 
things which we formerly have spoken of are but 
habilitations towards arms; and what is habilita- 
tion without intention and act ? Romulus, after his 
death (as they report or feign), sent a present to 
the Romans, that, above all, they should intend 
arms, and then they should prove the greatest em- 
pire of the world. The fabric of the state of Sparta 
was wholly (though not wisely) framed and com- 
posed to that scope and end; the Persians and 
Macedonians had it for a flash; the Gauls, Ger- 
mans, Goths, Saxons, Normans, and others, had it 
for a time; the Turks have it at this day, though in 
great declination. Of Christian Europe, they that 
have it are in effect only the Spaniards; but it is so 
plain, that every man profiteth in that he most 
intendeth, that it needeth not to be stood upon. It 
is enough to point at it, that no nation which doth 
not directly profess arms, may look to have great- 
ness fall into their mouths; and, on the other side, 
it is a most certain oracle of time, that those states 
that continue long in that profession (as the Romans 
and Turks principally have done), do wonders; and 
those that have professed arms but for an age have, 
notwithstanding, commonly attained that greatness 
in that age which maintained them long after, when 
their profession and exercise of arms had grown to 
decay. 



136 BACON'S ESSAYS 

Incident to this, point is, for a state to have 
those laws or customs which may reach forth unto 
them just occasions (as may be pretended) of war; 
for there is that justice imprinted in the nature of 
men, that they enter not upon wars (whereof so many 
calamities do ensue), but upon some, at the least 
specious grounds and quarrels. The Turk hath at 
hand, for cause of war, the propagation of his law 
or sect, a quarrel that he may always command. 
The Romans, though they esteemed the extending 
the limits of their empire to be great honor to their 
generals when it was done, yet they never rested 
upon that alone to begin a war. First, therefore, 
let nations that pretend to greatness have this, that 
they be sensible of wrongs, either upon borderers, 
merchants, or politic ministers; and that they sit 
not too long upon a provocation: secondly, let them 
be pressed, and ready to give aids and succors to 
their confederates, as it ever was with the Romans; 
insomuch, as if the confederate had leagues defensive 
with divers other states, and, upon invasion offered, 
did implore their aids severally, yet the Romans 
would ever be the foremost, and leave it to none 
other to have the honor. As for the wars, which 
were anciently made on the behalf of a kind of 
party, or tacit conformity of estate, I do not see how 
they may be well justified: as when the Romans 
made a war for the liberty of Graecia; or, when the 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 137 

Lacedaemonians and Athenians made wars to set up 
or pull down democracies and oligarchies; or when 
wars were made by foreigners, under the pretence 
of justice or protection, to deliver the subjects of 
others from tyranny and oppression, and the like. 
Let it suffice, that no estate expect to be great, that 
is not awake upon any just occasion of arming. 

Nobody can be healthful without exercise, neither 
natural body nor politic; and, certainly, to a king- 
dom, or estate, a just and honorable war is the true 
exercise. A civil war, indeed, is like the heat of a 
fever; but a foreign war is like the heat of exer- 
cise, and serveth to keep the body in health; for, 
in a slothful peace, both courages will effeminate 
and manners corrupt. But, howsoever it be for 
happiness, without all question for greatness, it 
maketh to be still, for the most part, in arms; and 
the strength of a veteran army (though it be a 
chargeable business) always on foot, is that which 
commonly giveth the law, or, at least, the reputation 
amongst all neighbor states, as may well be seen in 
Spain, which hath had, in one part or other, a veteran 
army, almost continually, now by the space of six- 
score years. 

To be master of the sea is an abridgment of a 
monarchy. Cicero, writing to Atticus, of Pompey's 
preparation against Caesar, saith, "Consilium Pom- 
peii plane Themistocleum est; putat enim, qui man 



138 BACON'S ESSAYS 

potitur, eum rerum poiiri; and, without doubt, 
Pompey had tired out Caesar, if upon vain confi- 
dence he had not left that way. We see the great 
effects of battles by sea. The battle of Actium 
decided the empire of the world: the battle of Le- 
panto arrested the greatness of the Turk. There 
be many examples where sea-fights have been final 
to the war; but this is when princes, or states, have 
set up their rest upon the battles. But thus much 
is certain, that he that commands the sea is at great 
liberty, and may take as much and as little of the 
war as he will; whereas, those that be strongest by 
land are many times, nevertheless, in great straits. 
Surely, at this day, with us of Europe, the vantage 
of strength at sea (which is one of the principal 
dowries of this kingdom of Great Britain) is great; 
both because most of the kingdoms of Europe are 
not merely inland, but girt with the sea most part 
of their compass; and because the wealth of both 
Indies seems, in great part, but an accessory to the 
command of the seas. 

The wars of latter ages seem to be made in the 
dark, in respect of the glory and honor which re- 
flected upon men from the wars in ancient time. 
There be now, for martial encouragement, some de- 
grees and orders of chivalry, which, nevertheless, 
are conferred promiscuously upon soldiers and no 
soldiers; and some remembrance, perhaps, upon the 



OF KINGDOMS AND ESTATES 139 

escutcheon, and some hospitals for maimed soldiers, 
and such-like things; but in ancient times, the tro- 
phies erected upon the place of the victory; the 
funeral laudatives, and monuments for those that 
died in the wars; the crowns and garlands per- 
sonal; the style of emperor which the great kings 
of the world after borrowed; the triumphs of the 
generals upon their return; the great donatives and 
largesses upon the disbanding of the armies; were 
things able to inflame all men's courages. But, 
above all, that of the triumph amongst the Romans 
was not pageants or gaudery, but one of the wisest 
and noblest institutions that ever was; for it con- 
tained three things: honor to the general, riches to 
the treasury out of the spoils, and donatives to the 
army. But that honor, perhaps, were not fit for mon- 
archies, except it be in the person of the monarch 
himself, or his sons; as it came to pass in the times 
of the Roman emperors, who did impropriate the 
actual triumphs to themselves and their sons, for 
such wars as they did achieve in person, and left 
only for wars achieved by subjects, some triumphal 
garments and ensigns to the general. 

To conclude. No man can by care-taking (as the 
Scripture saith) "add a cubit to his stature," in this 
little model of a man's body; but in the great frame 
of kingdoms and commonwealths, it is in the power 
of princes, or estates, to add amplitude and great- 



140 BACON'S ESSAYS 

ness to their kingdom; for, by introducing such 
ordinances, constitutions, and customs, as we have 
now touched, they may sow greatness to their pos- 
terity and succession: but these things are commonly 
not observed, but left to take their chance. 



XXX — OF REGIMEN OF HEALTH 

There is a wisdom in this beyond the rules of 
physic. A man's own observation, what he finds 
good of, and what he finds hurt of, is the best physic 
to preserve health; but it is a safer conclusion to 
say, "This agreeth not well with me, therefore I 
will not continue it;" than this, "I find no offence 
of this, therefore I may use it;" for strength of 
nature in youth passeth over many excesses which 
are owing a man till his age. Discern of the com- 
ing on of years, and think not to do the same things 
still; for age will not be defied. Beware of sudden 
change in any great point of diet, and, if necessity 
enforce it, fit the rest to it; for it is a secret both in 
nature and state, that it is safer to change many 
things than one. Examine thy customs of diet, 
sleep, exercise, apparel, and the like; and try, in any 
thing thou shalt judge hurtful, to discontinue it by 
little and little; but so, as if thou dost find any 
inconvenience by the change, thou come back to it 
again; for it is hard to distinguish that which is 
generally held good and wholesome, from that which 
is good particularly, and fit for thine own body. To 
be free-minded and cheerfully disposed at hours of 
meat, and of sleep, and of exercise, is one of the 

141 



142 BACON'S ESSAYS 

best precepts of long lasting. As for the passions 
and studies of the mind, avoid envy, anxious fears, 
anger fretting inwards, subtle and knotty inquisi- 
tions, joys, and exhilarations in excess, sadness not 
communicated. Entertain hopes, mirth rather than 
joy, variety of delights, rather than surfeit of them; 
wonder and admiration, and therefore novelties; 
studies that fill the mind with splendid and illustri- 
ous objects, as histories, fables, and contemplations 
of nature. If you fly physic in health altogether, it 
will be too strange for your body when you shall 
need it; if you make it too familiar, it will work no 
extraordinary effect when sickness cometh. I com- 
mend rather some diet, for certain seasons, than 
frequent use of physic, except it be grown into a 
custom; for those diets alter the body more, and 
trouble it less. Despise no new accident in your 
body, but ask opinion of it. In sickness, respect 
health principally; and in health, action; for those 
that put their bodies to endure in health, may, in 
most sicknesses which are not very sharp, be cured 
only with diet and tendering. Celsus could never 
have spoken it as a physician, had he not been a 
wise man withal, when he giveth it for one of the 
great precepts of health and lasting, that a man do 
vary and interchange contraries, but with an inclina- 
tion to the more benign extreme. Use fasting and 
full eating, but rather full eating; watching and 



OF REGIMEN OF HEALTH 143 

sleep, but rather sleep; sitting and exercise, but 
rather exercise, and the like; so shall nature be 
cherished, and yet taught masteries. Physicians are 
some of them so pleasing and conformable to the 
humor of the patient, as they press not the true cure 
of the disease; and some other are so regular in 
proceeding according to art for the disease, as they 
respect not sufficiently the condition of the patient. 
Take one of a middle temper; or, if it may not be 
found in one man, combine two of either sort; and 
forget not to call as well the best acquainted with 
your body, as the best reputed of for his faculty. 



XXXI— OF SUSPICION 

Suspicions amongst thoughts are like bats 
amongst birds, they ever fly by twilight. Certainly 
they are to be repressed, or at the least well guarded; 
for they cloud the mind, they lose friends, and they 
check with business, whereby business can not go 
on currently and constantly. They dispose kings to 
tyranny, husbands to jealousy, wise men to irresolu- 
tion and melancholy. They are defects, not in the 
heart but in the brain; for they take place in the 
stoutest natures, as in the example of Henry the 
Seventh of England. There w^as not a more suspi- 
cious man, nor a more stout, and in such a composi- 
tion they do small hurt; for commonly they are not 
admitted, but with examination, whether they be 
likely or no; but in fearful natures they gain ground 
too fast. There is nothing makes a man suspect 
much, more than to know little; and, therefore, men 
should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, 
and not to keep their suspicions in smother. What 
would men have } Do they think those they employ 
and deal with are saints ^ Do they not think they 
will have their own ends, and be truer to themselves 
than to them ? Therefore, there is no better way to 
moderate suspicions, than to account upon such sus- 

144 



OF SUSPICION 145 

picions as true, and yet to bridle them as false: for 
so far a man ought to make use of suspicions as to 
provide, as if that should be true that he suspects, 
yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind 
of itself gathers are but buzzes; but suspicions that 
are artificially nourished, and put into men's heads 
by the tales and whisperings of others, have stings. 
Certainly, the best mean, to clear the v^ay in this 
same wood of suspicions, is frankly to communicate 
them with the party that he suspects: for thereby he 
shall be sure to know more of the truth of them than 
he did before; and, withal, shall make that party 
more circumspect, not to give further cause of 
suspicion. But this would not be done to men of 
base natures; for they, if they find themselves once 
suspected, will never be true. The Italian says, " Sos- 
petto licentia feJe;" as if suspicion did give a pass- 
port to faith; but it ought rather to kindle it to 
discharge itself. 



XXXII — OF DISCOURSE 

Some in their discourse desire rather commenda- 
tion of wit, in being able to hold all arguments, than 
of judgment, in discerning what is true; as if it were 
a praise to know what might be said and not what 
should be thought. Some have certain common- 
places and themes, wherein they are good, and want 
variety; which kind of poverty is for the most part 
tedious, and, when it is once perceived, ridiculous. 
The honorablest part of talk is to give the occasion, 
and again to moderate and pass to somewhat else; 
for then a man leads the dance. It is good in dis- 
course, and speech of conversation, to vary and 
intermingle speech of the present occasion with 
arguments, tales with reasons, asking of questions 
with telling of opinions, and jest with earnest; 
for it is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say 
now, to jade anything too far. As for jest, there 
be certain things which ought to be privileged 
from it; namely, religion, matters of state, great 
persons, any man's present business of impor- 
tance, and any case that deserveth pity; yet there 
be some that think their wits have been asleep, 
except they dart out somewhat that is piquant, 

146 



OF DISCOURSE 147 

and to the quick; that is a vein which would be 
bridled: — 

" Parce, puer, stimulus, et fortius utere loris." 

And, generally, men ought to find the difference 
between saltness and bitterness. Certainly, he that 
hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of 
his wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memory. 
He that questioneth much, shall learn much, and 
content much, but especially if he apply his ques- 
tions to the skill of the persons whom he asketh: 
for he shall give them occasion to please themselves 
in speaking, and himself shall continually gather 
knowledge; but let his questions not be troublesome, 
for that is fit for a poser. And let him be sure to 
leave other men their turns to speak; nay, if there 
be any that would reign and take up all the time, 
let him find means to take them oflF, and to bring 
others on, as musicians used to do with those that 
dance too long galliards. If you dissemble some- 
times your knowledge of that you are thought to 
know, you shall be thought, another time, to know 
that you know not. Speech of a man's self ought 
to be seldom, and well chosen. I knew one was 
wont to say in scorn, " He must needs be a wise 
man, he speaks so much of himself;" and there is 
but one case wherein a man may commend himself 
with good grace, and that is in commending virtue 
in another, especially if it be such a virtue whereunto 



148 BACON'S ESSAYS 

himself pretendeth. Speech of touch towards others 
should be sparingly used; for discourse ought to be 
as a field, without coming home to any man. I 
knew two noblemen, of the west part of England, 
whereof the one was given to scoff, but kept ever 
royal cheer in his house; the other would ask of 
those that had been at the other's table, "Tell truly, 
was there never a flout or dry blow given ?" To 
which the guest v/ould answer, "Such and such a 
thing passed." The lord would say, "I thought he 
would mar a good dinner." Discretion of speech is 
more than eloquence; and to speak agreeably to 
him with whom we deal, is more than to speak in 
good words, or in good order. A good continued 
speech, without a good speech of interlocution, shows 
slowness; and a good reply, or second speech, with- 
out a good settled speech, showeth shallowness and 
weakness. As we see in beasts, that those that are 
weakest in the course, are yet nimblest in the turn; 
as it is betwixt the greyhound and the hare. To use 
too many circumstances, ere one come to the matter, 
is wearisome; to use none at all, is blunt. 



XXXIII — OF PLANTATIONS 

Plantations are amongst ancient, primitive, and 
heroical works. When the world was young, it begat 
more children; but now it is old, it begets fewer; 
for I may justly account new plantations to be the 
children of former kingdoms. I like a plantation 
in a pure soil; that is, where people are not dis- 
planted, to the end to plant in others; for else it 
is rather an extirpation than a plantation. Plant- 
ing of countries is like planting of woods; for you 
must make account to lose almost twenty years' 
profit, and expect your recompense in the end; for 
the principal thing that hath been the destruction 
of most plantations, hath been the base and hasty 
drawing of profit in the first years. It is true, 
speedy profit is not to be neglected, as far as may 
stand with the good of the plantation, but no further. 
It is a shameful and unblessed thing to take the 
scum of people and wicked condemned men, to be 
the people with whom you plant; and not only so, 
but it spoileth the plantation; for they will ever live 
like rogues, and not fall to work; but be lazy, and 
do mischief, and spend victuals, and be quickly 
weary, and then certify over to their country to the 
discredit of the plantation. The people wherewith 

149 



150 BACON'S ESSAYS 

you plant ought to be gardeners, ploughmen, labor- 
ers, smiths, carpenters, joiners, fishermen, fowlers, 
with some few apothecaries, surgeons, cooks, and 
bakers. In a country of plantations, first look about 
what kind of victual the country yields of itself to 
hand; as chestnuts, walnuts, pine-apples, olives, 
dates, plums, cherries, wild honey, and the like, 
and make use of them. Then consider what victual, 
or esculent things there are, which grow speedily, 
and within the year; as parsnips, carrots, turnips, 
onions, radish, artichokes of Jerusalem, maize, and 
the like. For wheat, barley, and oats, they ask too 
much labor; but with peas and beans you may 
begin, both because they ask less labor, and because 
they serve for meat as well as for bread; and of 
rice, likewise, cometh a great increase, and it is a 
kind of meat. Above all, there ought to be brought 
store of biscuit, oatmeal, flour, meal, and the like, in 
the beginning, till bread may be had. For beasts, 
or birds, take chiefly such as are least subject to 
diseases, and multiply fastest; as swine, goats, cocks, 
hens, turkeys, geese, house-doves, and the like. The 
victual in plantations ought to be expended almost 
as in a besieged town, that is, with certain allowance; 
and let the main part of the ground employed to gar- 
dens or corn, be to a common stock; and to be laid 
in, and stored up, and then delivered out in propor- 
tion; besides some spots of ground that any par- 



OF PLANTATIONS 151 

ticular person will manure for his own private use. 
Consider, likewise, what commodities the soil where 
the plantation is doth naturally yield, that they may 
some way help to defray the charge of the planta- 
tion; so it be not, as was said, to the untimely 
prejudice of the main business, as it hath fared with 
tobacco in Virginia. Wood commonly aboundeth 
but too much; and therefore timber is fit to be one. 
If there be iron ore, and streams whereupon to set 
the mills, iron is a brave commodity where wood 
aboundeth. Making of bay-salt, if the climate be 
proper for it, would be put in experience; grow- 
ing silk, likewise, if any be, is a likely commodity; 
pitch and tar, where store of firs and pines are, will 
not fail; so drugs and sweet woods, where they are, 
can not but yield great profit; soap-ashes, likewise, 
and other things that may be thought of; but moil 
not too much under ground, for the hope of mines 
is very uncertain, and useth to make the planters 
lazy in other things. For government, let it be in 
the hands of one, assisted with some counsel; and 
let them have commission to exercise martial laws, 
with some limitation; and, above all, let men make 
that profit of being in the wilderness, as they have 
God always, and His service, before their eyes. Let 
not the government of the plantation depend upon 
too many counselors and undertakers in the country 
that planteth, but upon a temperate number; and 



152 BACON'S ESSAYS 

let those be rather noblemen and gentlemen, than 
merchants, for they look ever to the present gain. 
Let there be freedoms from custom, till the planta- 
tion be of strength; and not only freedom from, 
custom, but freedom to carry their commodities 
where they may make their best of them, except 
there be some special cause of caution. Cram not 
in people, by sending too fast company after com- 
pany; but rather barken how they waste, and 
send supplies proportionably; but so as the num- 
ber may live well in the plantation, and not by 
surcharge be in penury. It hath been a great en- 
dangering to the health of some plantations, that 
they have built along the sea and rivers, in marish 
and unwholesome grounds; therefore, though you 
begin there, to avoid carriage and other like dis- 
commodities, yet build still rather upwards from 
the streams than along. It concerneth, likewise, 
the health of the plantation, that they have good 
store of salt with them, that they may use it in their 
victuals when it shall be necessary. If you plant 
where savages are, do not only entertain them with 
trifles and jingles, but use them justly and gra- 
ciously, with sufficient guard, nevertheless; and do 
not win their favor by helping them to invade their 
enemies, but for their defence it is not amiss; and 
send oft of them over to the country that plants, 
that they may see a better condition than their own, 



OF PLANTATIONS 153 

and commend it when they return. When the 
plantation grows to strength, then it is time to plant 
with women as well as with men; that the planta- 
tion may spread into generations, and not be ever 
pieced from without. It is the sinfuUest thing in 
the world, to forsake or destitute a plantation once 
in forwardness; for, besides the dishonor, it is the 
guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons. 



XXXIV — OF RICHES 

I CAN NOT call riches better than the baggage of 
virtue; the Roman word is better, ijnpedimenta; 
for as the baggage is to an army, so is riches to virtue; 
it can not be spared nor left behind, but it hindereth 
the march; yea, and the care of it sometimes loseth 
or disturbeth the victory. Of great riches there is 
no real use, except it be in the distribution; the rest 
is but conceit. So saith Solomon: "Where much is, 
there are many to consume it; and v^hat hath the 
owner, but the sight of it with his eyes V The 
personal fruition in any man can not reach to feel 
great riches: there is a custody of them, or a power 
of dole and donative of them, or a fame of them, but 
no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what 
feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities ? 
and what works of ostentation are undertaken, be- 
cause there might seem to be some use of great 
riches .? But then you will say, they may be of use 
to buy men out of dangers or troubles; as Solomon 
saith: "Riches are as a strong-hold in the imagina- 
tion of the rich man;" but this is excellently ex- 
pressed, that it is in imagination, and not always in 
fact; for, certainly, great riches have sold more men 
than they have bought out. Seek not proud riches, 

154 



OF RICHES 155 

but such as thou mayest get justly, use soberly, dis- 
tribute cheerfully, and leave contentedly; yet have 
no abstract nor friarly contempt of them, but distin- 
guish, as Cicero saith well of Rabirius Posthumus: 
"/w studio rei amplificandcB apparehat, non ava- 
ritice prcedam, sed instrumentum honitati qucsri." 
Harken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty 
gathering of riches: "Qui festinat ad divitias, non 
erit insons.'' The poets feign, that when Plutus 
(which is riches) is sent from Jupiter, he limps, 
and goes slowly; but when he is sent from Pluto, 
he runs, and is swift of foot; meaning, that riches 
gotten by good means and just labor pace slowly; 
but when they come by the death of others (as by 
the course of inheritance, testaments, and the like), 
they come tumbling upon a man. But it might be 
applied likewise to Pluto, taking him for the devil; 
for when riches come from the devil (as by fraud 
and oppression, and unjust means), they come upon 
speed. The ways to enrich are many, and most of 
them foul: parsimony is one of the best, and yet 
is not innocent; for it withholdeth men from w^orks 
of liberality and charity. The improvement of the 
ground is the most natural obtaining of riches; for 
it is our great mother's blessing, the earth's, but it 
is slow; and yet, where men of great wealth do 
stoop to husbandry, it multiplieth riches exceed- 
ingly. I knew a nobleman, in England, that had 



156 BACON'S ESSAYS 

the greatest audits of any man in my time, a great 
grazier, a great sheep-master, a great timber-man, 
a great collier, a great corn-master, a great lead- 
man, and so of iron, and a number of the like points 
of husbandry; so as the earth seemed a sea to him 
in respect to the perpetual importation. It was 
truly observed by one, "That himself came very 
hardly to a little riches, and very easily to great 
riches;" for when a man's stock is come to that, 
that he can expect the prime of markets, and over- 
come those bargains, which for their greatness are 
few men's money, and be partner in the industries 
of younger men, he can not but increase mainly. 
The gains of ordinary trades and vocations are 
honest, and furthered by two things, chiefly: by 
diligence, and by a good name for good and fair 
dealing; but the gains of bargains are of a more 
doubtful nature, when men shall wait upon others' 
necessity; broke by servants and instruments to 
draw them on; put off" others cunningly that would 
be better chapmen; and the like practices, which 
are crafty and naught. As for the chopping of 
bargains, when a man buys not to hold, but to sell 
over again, that commonly grindeth double, both 
upon the seller and upon the buyer. Sharings do 
greatly enrich, if the hands be well chosen that are 
trusted. Usury is the certainest means of gain, 
though one of the worst; as that whereby a man 



OF RICHES 157 

doth eat his bread, in sudore vultus ahem; and, 
besides, doth plough upon Sundays; but yet certain 
though it be, it hath flaws, for that the scriveners 
and brokers do value unsound men to serve their 
ov^n turn. The fortune, in being the first in an 
invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes 
a wonderful overgrowth in riches, as it was with the 
first sugar-man in the Canaries; therefore, if a man 
can play the true logician, to have as well judgment 
as invention, he may do great matters, especially 
if the times be fit. He that resteth upon gains 
certain, shall hardly grow to great riches; and he 
that puts all upon adventures, doth oftentimes 
break and come to poverty; it is good, therefore, 
to guard adventures with certainties that may 
uphold losses. Monopolies, and coemption of wares 
for resale, where they are not restrained, are great 
means to enrich; especially if the party have intel- 
ligence what tl\ings are like to come into request, 
and so store himself beforehand. Riches gotten by 
service, though it be of the best rise, yet when they 
are gotten by flattery, feeding humors, and other 
servile conditions, they may be placed amongst the 
worst. As for fishing for testaments and execu- 
torships (as Tacitus saith of Seneca, " Testamenta 
et orbos tanquam indagine capi"), it is yet worse, 
by how much men submit themselves to meaner 
persons than in service. Believe not much them 



158 BACON'S ESSAYS 

that seem to despise riches, for they despise them 
that despair of them; and none worse when they 
come to them. Be not penny-wise; riches have 
wings, and sometimes they fly away of themselves, 
sometimes they must be set flying to bring in more. 
Men leave their riches either to their kindred, or 
to the public; and moderate portions prosper best 
in both. A great state left to an heir, is as a lure 
to all the birds of prey round about to seize on him, 
if he be not the better stablished in years and judg- 
ment; likewise, glorious gifts and foundations are 
like sacrifices without salt, and but the painted 
sepulchres of alms, which soon will putrefy and cor- 
rupt inwardly. Therefore, measure not thine ad- 
vancements by quantity, but frame them by measure, 
and defer not charities till death; for, certainly, 
if a man weigh it rightly, he that doth so is rather 
liberal of another man's than of his own. 



XXXV — OF PROPHECIES 

I MEAN not to speak of divine prophecies, nor of 
heathen oracles, nor of natural predictions; but only 
of prophecies that have been of certain memory^ and 
from hidden causes. Saith the Pythonissa to Saul, 
"To-morrow thou and thy sons shall be with me." 
Virgil hath these verses from Homer: — 

** Hie domus .^neae cunctis dominabitur oris, 
Et nati natorum, et qui nascentar ab illis." 

A prophecy, as it seems, of the Roman empire. 
Seneca the tragedian hath these verses: — 

** Venient annis 

Szecula seris, quibus Oceanus 
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens 
Pateat TeHus, Tiphysque novos 
Detegat orbes ; nee sit terris 
Ultima Thule." 

A prophecy of the discovery of America. The 
daughter of Polycrates dreamed that Jupiter bathed 
her father, and Apollo anointed him; and it came to 
pass that he was crucified in an open place, where 
the sun made his body run with sweat, and the rain 
washed it. Philip of Macedon dreamed he sealed 
up his wife's belly, whereby he did expound it, 

159 



i6o BACON'S ESSAYS 

that his wife should be barren; but Aristander the 
soothsayer told him his wife was with child, because 
men do not use to seal vessels that are empty. A 
phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent, 
said to him, " Philippis iterum me videhis.'' Tibe- 
rius said to Galba, " Tu quoque, Galha, degustahis 
imperium." In Vespasian's time, there went a 
prophecy in the East, that those that should come 
forth of Judea, should reign over the world; which, 
though it may be was meant of our Saviour, yet Ta- 
citus expounds it of Vespasian. Domitian dreamed, 
the night before he v^^as slain, that a golden head 
was growing out of the nape of his neck; and, 
indeed, the succession that followed him, for many 
years, made golden times. Henry the Sixth of Eng- 
land said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, 
and gave him water, "This is the lad that shall enjoy 
the crown for which we strive." When I was in 
France, I heard from one Doctor Pena, that the 
queen mother, who was given to curious arts, caused 
the king her husband's nativity to be calculated under 
a false name; and the astrologer gave a judgment, 
that he should be killed in a duel; at which the 
queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above 
challenges and duels; but he was slain upon a course 
at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery 
going in at his beaver. The trivial prophecy which 



OF PROPHECIES i6i 

I heard when I was a child, and Queen Elizabeth 
was in the flower of her years, was, 

** When hempe is spunne, 
England's done ;" 

whereby it was generally conceived, that after the 
princes had reigned which had the principal letters 
of that word hempe (which were Henry, Edward, 
Mary, Philip, and Elizabeth), England should come 
to utter confusion; which, thanks be to God, is veri- 
fied only in the change of the name; for that the 
king's style is now no more of England, but of 
Britain. There was also another prophecy before 
the year of eighty-eight, which I do not well under- 
stand. 

"There shall be seen upon a day. 
Between the Baugh and the May, 
The black fleet of Norway. 
When that that is come and gone, 
England build houses of lime and stone. 
For after wars you shall have none." 

It was generally conceived to be meant of the Span- 
ish fleet that came in eighty-eight; for that the king 
of Spain's surname, as they say, is Norway. The 
prediction of Regiomontanus, 

" Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus," 

was thought likewise accomplished in the sending 
of that great fleet, being the greatest in strength, 



i62 BACON'S ESSAYS 

though not in number, of all that ever swam upon 
the sea. As for Cleon's dream, I think it was a 
jest; it was, that he was devoured of a long dragon; 
and it was expounded of a maker of sausages, that 
troubled him exceedingly. There are numbers of 
the like kind, especially if you include dreams, and 
predictions of astrology; but I have set down these 
few only of certain credit, for example. My judg- 
ment is, that they ought all to be despised, and 
ought to serve but for winter talk by the fireside; 
though, when I say despised, I mean it as for be- 
lief; for otherwise, the spreading or publishing of 
them is in no sort to be despised, for they have done 
much mischief; and I see many severe laws made 
to suppress them. That that hath given them 
grace, and some credit, consisteth in three things. 
First, that men mark when they hit, and never 
mark when they miss; as they do, generally, also 
of dreams. The second is, that probable con- 
jectures, or obscure traditions, many times turn 
themselves into prophecies; while the nature of 
man, which coveteth divination, thinks it no peril 
to foretell that which indeed they do but collect, 
as that of Seneca's verse; for so much was then 
subject to demonstration, that the globe of the 
earth had great parts beyond the Atlantic, which 
might be probably conceived not to be all sea; 
and adding thereto the tradition in Plato's Timceusy 



OF PROPHECIES 163 

and his Atlanticus, it might encourage one to turn 
it to a prediction. The third and last (which is the 
great one), is, that almost all of them, being infinite 
in number, have been impostures, and, by idle 
and crafty brains, merely contrived and feigned, 
after the event past. 



XXXVI — OF AMBITION 

Ambition is like choler, which is a humor that 
maketh man active, earnest, full of alacrity, and stir- 
ring, if it be not stopped; but if it be stopped, and 
can not have its v^ay, it becometh a dust, and there- 
by malign and venomous. So ambitious men, 
if they find the way open for their rising, and still 
get forward, they are rather busy than dangerous; 
but if they be checked in their desires, they be- 
come secretly discontent, and look upon men and 
matters with an evil eye, and are best pleased 
when things go backward; which is the worst prop- 
erty in a servant of a prince or state. Therefore, 
it is good for princes, if they use ambitious men, 
to handle it so, as they be still progressive, and not 
retrograde; which, because it can not be without 
inconvenience, it is good not to use such natures 
at all; for if they rise not with their service, they 
will take order to make their service fall with them. 
But since we have said, it were good not to use men 
of ambitious natures, except it be upon necessity, 
it is fit we speak in what cases they are of necessity. 
Good commanders in the wars must be taken, 
be they never so ambitious; for the use of their 
service dispenseth with the rest; and to take a 
soldier without ambition, is to pull off his spurs. 

164 



OF AMBITION 165 

There is also great use of ambitious men m being 
screens to princes in matters of danger and envy; 
for no man will take that part, except he be like 
a seeled dove, that mounts and mounts, because 
he can not see about him. There is use, also, of 
ambitious men, in pulling dovs^n the greatness of 
any subject that overtops; as Tiberius used Macro 
in the pulling down of Sejanus. Since, therefore, 
they must be used in such cases, there resteth to 
speak how they are to be bridled, that they may 
be less dangerous. There is less danger of them 
if they be of mean birth, than if they be noble; 
and if they be rather harsh of nature, than gracious 
and popular; and if they be rather new raised, 
than grown cunning and fortified in their great- 
ness. It is counted by some a weakness in princes 
to have favorites; but it is, of all others, the best 
remedy against ambitious great ones; for when the 
way of pleasuring and displeasuring lieth by the 
favorite, it is impossible any other should be over- 
great. Another means to curb them, is, to balance 
them by 'others as proud as they; but then there 
must be some middle counselors, to keep things 
steady, for without that ballast, the ship will roll 
too much. At the least, a prince may animate 
and inure some meaner persons to be, as it were, 
scourges to ambitious men. As for the having of 
them obnoxious to ruin, if they be of fearful natures, 



i66 BACON'S ESSAYS 

it may do well; but if they be stout and daring, it 
may precipitate their designs, and prove dangerous. 
As for the pulling of them down, if the affairs re- 
quire it, and that it may not be done with safety 
suddenly, the only way is, the interchange con- 
tinually of favors and disgraces, whereby they 
may not know what to expect, and be, as it were, 
in a wood. Of ambitions, it is less harmful the 
ambition to prevail in great things, than that other 
to appear in every thing; for that breeds confusion, 
and mars business; but yet, it is less danger to have 
an ambitious man stirring in business, than great 
in dependencies. He that seeketh to be eminent 
amongst able men, hath a great task, but that is 
ever good for the public; but he that plots to be 
the only figure amongst ciphers, is the decay of a 
whole age. Honor hath three things in it: the 
vantage-ground to do good; the approach to kings 
and principal persons; and the raising of a man's 
own fortunes. He that hath the best of these 
intentions, when he aspireth, is an honest man; 
and that prince that can discern of these inten- 
tions in another that aspireth, is a wise prince. 
Generally, let princes and states choose such minis- 
ters as are more sensible of duty than of rising, 
and such as love business rather upon conscience 
than upon bravery; and let them discern a busy 
nature from a willing mind. 



XXXVII— OF MASKS AND TRIUMPHS 

These things are but toys to come amongst 
such serious observations; but yet, since princes 
will have such things, it is better they should be 
graced with elegancy, than daubed with cost. 
Dancing to song is a thing of great state and pleasure. 
I understand it that the song be in choir, placed 
aloft, and accompanied with some broken music, 
and the ditty fitted to the device. Acting in song, 
especially in dialogues, hath an extreme good grace; 
I say acting, not dancing (for that is a mean and 
vulgar thing); and the voices of the dialogue v/ould 
be strong and manly (a base and a tenor, no treble), 
and the ditty high and tragical, not nice or dainty. 
Several choirs, placed one over against another, 
and taking the voices by catches anthem-wise, 
give great pleasure. Turning dances into figure 
is a childish curiosity; and, generally, let it be noted, 
that those things which I here set down are such 
as do naturally take the sense, and not respect 
petty wonderments. It is true, the alterations of 
scenes, so it be quietly and without noise, are things 
of great beauty and pleasure; for they feed and 
relieve the eye before it be full of the same object. 
Let the scenes abound with light, specially colored 

167 



i68 BACON'S ESSAYS 

and varied; and let the maskers, or any other that 
are to come down from the scene, have some mo- 
tions upon the scene itself before their coming 
down; for it draws the eye strangely, and makes 
it with great pleasure to desire to see that it can 
not perfectly discern. Let the songs be loud and 
cheerful, and not chirpings or pulings; let the music, 
likewise, be sharp and loud, and well placed. The 
colors that show best by candlelight, are white, 
carnation, and a kind of sea-water green; and 
ouches, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so 
they are of most glory. As for rich embroidery, 
it is lost and not discerned. Let the suits of the 
maskers be graceful, and such as become the person 
when the vizors are off; not after examples of known 
attires, Turks, soldiers, mariners, and the like. 
Let anti-masks not be long; they have been com- 
monly of fools, satyrs, baboons, wild men, antics, 
beasts, sprites, witches, Ethiopes, pygmies, tur- 
quets, nymphs, rustics, Cupids, statues moving, 
and the like. As for angels, it is not comical enough 
to put them in anti-masks; and any thing that is 
hideous, as devils, giants, is, on the other side, as 
unfit; but, chiefly, let the music of them be recrea- 
tive, and with some strange changes. Some sweet 
odors suddenly coming forth, without any drops 
falling, are, in such a company as there is steam 
and heat, things of great pleasure and refreshment. 



OF MASKS AND TRIUMPHS 169 

Double masks, one of men, another of ladies, 
addeth state and variety; but all is nothing, except 
the room be kept clear and neat. 

For justs, and tourneys, and barriers, the glories 
of them are chiefly in the chariots, wherein the 
challengers make their entry; especially if they 
be drawn with strange beasts, as lions, bears, camels, 
and the like; or in the devices of their entrance, 
or in the bravery of their liveries"^ or in the goodly 
furniture of their horses and armor. But enough 
of these toys. 



XXXVIII — OF NATURE IN MEN 

Nature is often hidden, sometimes overcome, 
seldom extinguished. Force maketh nature more 
violent in the return; doctrine and discourse maketh 
nature less importune, but custom only doth alter 
and subdue nature. He that seeketh victory over 
his nature, let him not set himself too great 
nor too small tasks; for the first will make him 
dejected by often failings, and the second will 
make him a small proceeder, though by often pre- 
vailings. And at the first, let him practise with 
helps, as swimmers do with bladders, or rushes; 
but, after a time, let him practise with disadvantages, 
as dancers do with thick shoes; for it breeds great 
perfection, if the practice be harder than the use. 
Where nature is mighty, and therefore the victory 
hard, the degrees had need be, first, to stay and 
arrest nature in time; like to him that would say 
over the four and twenty letters when he was angry; 
then to go less in quantity: as if one should, in 
forbearing wine, come from drinking healths to 
a draft at a meal; and, lastly, to discontinue alto- 
gether; but if a man have the fortitude and reso- 
lution to enfranchise himself at once, that is the 
best: — 

170 



OF NATURE IN MEN 171 

" Optimus ille animi vindex laedentia pectus 
Vincula qui rupit, dedoluitque semel. " 

Neither is the ancient rule amiss, to bend nature 
as a wand to a contrary extreme, whereby to set 
it right; understanding it where the contrary ex- 
treme is no vice. Let not a man force a habit upon 
himself with a perpetual continuance, but with 
some intermission, for both the pause reinforceth 
the new onset; and if a man that is not perfect be 
ever in practice, he shall as well practise his errors 
as his abilities, and induce one habit of both; and 
there is no means to help this but by seasonable 
intermissions. But let not a man trust his victory 
over his nature too far; for nature will lie buried 
a great time, and yet revive upon the occasion or 
temptation; like as it was with iEsop's damsel, 
turned from a cat to a woman, who sat very de- 
murely at the board's end till a mouse ran before 
her. Therefore, let a man either avoid the occa- 
sion altogether, or put himself often to it, that he 
may be little moved with it. A man's nature is 
best perceived in privateness, for there is no affec- 
tation; in passion, for that putteth a man out of 
his precepts; and in a new case or experiment, for 
there custom leaveth him. They are happy men 
whose natures sort with their vocations; otherwise 
they may say, " Multum incola fuit anima mea^^ 
when they converse in those things they do not 



172 BACON'S ESSAYS 

affect. In studies, whatsoever a man commandeth 
upon himself, let him set hours for it: but what- 
soever is agreeable to his nature, let him take no 
care for any set times; for his thoughts will fly to 
it of themselves, so as the spaces of other business 
or studies will suffice. A man's nature runs either 
to herbs or weeds; therefore, let him seasonably 
water the one, and destroy the other. 



XXXIX — OF CUSTOM AND EDUCA- 
TION 

Men's thoughts are much according to their 
inclination; their discourse and speeches according 
to their learning and infused opinions; but their 
deeds are, after, as they have been accustomed; 
and, therefore, as Machiavel well noteth (though 
in an evil-favored instance), there is no trusting to 
the force of nature, nor to the bravery of w^ords, 
except it be corroborate by custom. His instance 
is, that, for the achieving of a desperate conspiracy, 
a man should not rest upon the fierceness of any 
man's nature, or his resolute undertakings, but 
take such a one as hath had his hands formerly 
in blood; but Machiavel knew not of a Friar Clement, 
nor a Ravaillac, nor a Jaureguy, nor a Baltazar 
Gerard; yet his rule holdeth still, that nature, nor 
the engagement of words, are not so forcible as 
custom. Only' superstition is now so well advanced, 
that men of the first blood are as firm as butchers 
by occupation; and votary resolution is made 
equipollent to custom, even in matter of blood. 
In other things, the predominancy of custom is 
everywhere visible, insomuch as a man would 
wonder to hear men profess, protest, engage, give 

173 



174 BACON'S ESSAYS 

great words, and then do just as they have done 
before, as if they were dead images and engines, 
moved only by the wheels of custom. We see, 
also, the reign or tyranny of custom, what it is. 
The Indians (I mean the sect of their wise men) 
lay themselves quietly upon a stack of wood, and 
so sacrifice themselves by fire; nay, the wives strive 
to be burned with the corpses of their husbands. 
The lads of Sparta, of ancient time, were wont to 
be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so 
much as quecking. I remember, in the beginning 
of Queen Elizabeth's time of England, an Irish 
rebel condemned, put up a petition to the deputy 
that he might be hanged in a withe, and not in a 
halter, because it had been so used with former 
rebels. There be monks in Russia for penance, 
that will sit a whole night in a vessel of water, till 
they be engaged with hard ice. Many examples 
may be put of the force of custom, both upon mind 
and body; therefore, since custom is the principal 
magistrate of man's life, let men, by all means, 
endeavor to obtain good customs. Certainly, cus- 
tom is most perfect when it beginneth in young 
years: this we call education, which is, in effect, 
but an early custom. So we see, in languages, 
the tongue is more pliant to all expressions and 
sounds, the joints are more supple to all feats of 
activity and motions in youth, than afterwards; 



OF CUSTOM AND EDUCATION 175 

for it is true, that late learners can not so well take 
the ply, except it be in some minds that have not 
suffered themselves to fix, but have kept them- 
selves open and prepared to receive continual 
amendment, which is exceeding rare. But if the 
force of custom, simple and separate, be great, 
the force of custom, copulate and conjoined and 
collegiate, is far greater; for there example teacheth, 
company comforteth, emulation quickeneth, glory 
raiseth; so as in such places the force of custom 
is in his exaltation. Certainly, the great multipli- 
cation of virtues upon human nature resteth upon 
societies well ordained and disciplined; for com- 
monwealths and good governments do nourish 
virtue grown, but do not much mend the seeds; 
but the misery is, that the most effectual means 
are now applied to the ends least to be desired. 



XL — OF FORTUNE 

It can not be denied, but outward accidents con- 
duce much to fortune; favor, opportunity, death 
of others, occasion fitting virtue; but, chiefly, the 
mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands: 
" Faber quisque fortunce suce," saith the poet; and 
the most frequent of external causes, is that the 
folly of one man is the fortune of another; for no 
man prospers so suddenly as by others' errors. 
"Serpens nisi serpentem comederit non fit draco." 
Overt and apparent virtues bring forth praise: 
but there be secret and hidden virtues that bring 
forth fortune; certain deliveries of a man's self, 
which have no name. The Spanish name, disem- 
holtura, partly expresseth them, when there be not 
stonds nor restiveness in a man's nature, but that 
the wheels of his mind keep way with the wheels 
of his fortune; for so Livy (after he had described 
Cato Major in these words, "/« illo viro, tantum 
rohur corporis et animi fuit, ut quocunque loco natus 
essety fortunam sihi facturus videretur,") falleth 
upon that, that he had versatile ingenium: there- 
fore, if a man look sharply and attentively, he 
shall see Fortune; for though she be blind, yet she 
is not invisible. The way of Fortune is like the 

176 



OF FORTUNE 177 

milky way in the sky; which is a meeting, or knot, 
of a number of small stars, not seen asunder, but 
giving light together; so are there a number of 
little and scarce discerned virtues, or rather faculties 
and customs, that make men fortunate. The 
Italians note some of them, such as a man would 
little think. When they speak of one that can not 
do amiss, they will throw in into his other conditions, 
that he hath Poco di tnatto; and, certainly, there be 
not two more fortunate properties, than to have 
a little of the fool, and not too much of the honest; 
therefore, extreme lovers of their country, or masters, 
were never fortunate; neither can they be, for when 
a man placeth his thoughts without himself, he 
goeth not his own way. A hasty fortune maketh 
an enterpriser and remover (the French hath it 
better, entreprenant, or remnant); but the exercised 
fortune maketh the able man. Fortune is to be 
honored and respected, and it be but for her daugh- 
ters. Confidence and Reputation; for those two 
Felicity breedeth; the first within a man's self, 
the latter in others towards him. All wise men, to 
decline the envy of their own virtues, use to ascribe 
them to Providence and Fortune; for so they may 
the better assume them; and, besides, it is great- 
ness in a man to be the care of the higher powers. 
So Caesar said to the pilot in the tempest, " Ccesarem 
portas, et fortunam ejus." So Sylla chose the 



178 BACON'S ESSAYS 

name of "Felix," and not of "Magnus;" and it 
hath been noted, that those who ascribe openly 
too much to their own wisdom and policy, end 
unfortunate. It is written, that Timotheus the 
Athenian, after he had, in the account he gave to 
the state of his government, often interlaced his 
speech, "and in this Fortune had no part," never 
prospered in any thing he undertook afterwards. 
Certainly there be, whose fortunes are like Homer's 
verses, that have a slide and easiness more than 
the verses of other poets; as Plutarch saith of 
Timoleon's fortune in respect of that of Agesilaus 
or Epaminondas; and that this should be, no doubt 
it is much in a man's self. 



XLI — OF USURY 

Many have made witty invectives against usury. 
They say that it is pity the devil should have God's 
part, which is the tithe; that the usurer is the great- 
est Sabbath-breaker, because his plow goeth every 
Sunday; that the usurer is the drone that Virgil 

speaketh of: — 

** Ignavum fucos pecus a praesepibus arcent;" 

that the usurer breaketh the first law that w^as 
made for mankind after the fall, which was, "m 
sudore vultus tui comedes panem tuum;'' not, "in 
sudore vultus alieni;" that usurers should have 
orange-tawny bonnets, because they do Judaize; 
that it is against nature for money to beget money, 
and the like. I say this only, that usury is a " con- 
cessum propter duritiem cordis;'^ for, since there 
must be borrowing and lending, and men are so 
hard of heart as they will not lend freely, usury 
must be permitted. Some others have made sus- 
picious and cunning propositions of banks, dis- 
covery of men's estates, and other inventions; but 
few have spoken of usury usefully. It is good to 
set before us the incommodities and commodities 
of usury, that the good may be either weighed out, 
or culled out; and warily to provide, that, while 

179 



i8o BACON'S ESSAYS 

we make forth to that which is better, we meet not 
with that which is worse. 

The discommodities of usury are, first, that it 
makes fewer merchants; for were it not for this 
lazy trade of usury, money would not lie still, but 
would, in great part, be employed upon merchan- 
dising, which is the vena porta of wealth in a state. 
The second, that it makes poor merchants; for 
as a farmer can not husband his ground so well 
if he sit at a great rent, so the merchant can not 
drive his trade so well if he sit at great usury. The 
third is incident to the other two; and that is, the 
decay of customs of kings, or states, which ebb 
or flow with merchandising. The fourth, that it 
bringeth the treasure of a realm or state into a few 
hands; for the usurer being at certainties, and 
others at uncertainties, at the end of the game 
most of the money will be in the box; and ever a 
state flourisheth when wealth is more equally 
spread. The fifth, that it beats down the price of 
land; for the employment of money is chiefly either 
merchandising or purchasing, and usury waylays 
both. The sixth, that it doth dull and damp all 
industries, improvements, and new inventions, where- 
in money would be stirring, if it were not for this 
slug. The last, that it is the canker and ruin of 
many men's estates, which, in process of time, 
breeds a public poverty. 



OF USURY i8i 

On the other side, the commodities of usury are, 
first, that, howsoever usury in some respect hinder- 
eth merchandising, yet in some other it advanceth 
it; for it is certain that the greatest part of trade 
is driven by young merchants upon borrowing at 
interest; so as if the usurer either call in, or keep 
back his money, there will ensue presently a great 
stand of trade. The second is, that, were it not for 
this easy borrowing upon interest, men's necessi- 
ties would draw upon them a most sudden undoing, 
in that they would be forced to sell their means 
(be it lands or goods), far under foot; and so, where- 
as usury doth but gnaw upon them, bad markets 
would swallow them quite up. As for mortgaging 
or pawning, it will little mend the matter; for either 
men will not take pawns without use, or, if they do, 
they will look precisely for the forfeiture. I re- 
member a cruel moneyed man in the country, that 
would say, "The devil take this usury, it keeps us 
fiom forfeitures of mortgages and bonds." The 
third and last is, that it is a vanity to conceive that 
there would be ordinary borrowing without profit; 
and it is impossible to conceive the number of 
inconveniences that will ensue, if borrowing be 
cramped. Therefore, to speak of the abolishing 
of usury is idle; all states have ever had it in one 
kind or rate, or other; so as that opinion must be 
sent to Utopia. 



i82 BACON'S ESSAYS 

To speak now of the reformation and reglement 
of usury, how the discommodities of it may be best 
avoided, and the commodities retained. It appears, 
by the balance of commodities and discommodities 
of usury, two things are to be reconciled; the one, 
that the tooth of usury be grinded, that it bite not 
too much; the other, that there be left open a means 
to invite moneyed men to lend to the merchants, 
for the continuing and quickening of trade. This 
can not be done, except you introduce two several 
sorts of usury, a less and a greater; for if you reduce 
usury to one low rate, it will ease the common 
borrower, but the merchant will be to seek for 
money; and it is to be noted that the trade of mer- 
chandise being the most lucrative, may bear usury 
at a good rate; other contracts not so. 

To serve both intentions, the way would be 
briefly thus: that there be two rates of usury; the 
one free and general for all; the other under license 
only to certain persons, and in certain places of 
merchandising. First, therefore, let usury in gen- 
eral be reduced to five in the hundred, and let that 
rate be proclaimed to be free and current; and let 
the state shut itself out to take any penalty for the 
same. This will preserve borrowing from any 
general stop or dryness; this will ease infinite borrow- 
ers in the country; this will, in good part, raise the 
price of land, because land purchased at sixteen 



OF USURY 183 

years' purchase will yield six in the hundred, and 
somewhat more, whereas this rate of interest yields 
but five. This, by like reason, will encourage 
and edge industrious and profitable improvements, 
because many will rather venture in that kind, 
than take five in the hundred, especially having 
been used to greater profit. Secondly, let there be 
certain persons licensed to lend to known merchants 
upon usury, at a higher rate, and let it be with the 
cautions following: Let the rate be, even with the 
merchant himself, somewhat more easy than that 
he used formerly to pay; for, by that means, all bor- 
rowers shall have some ease by this reformation, 
be he merchant, or whosoever; let it be no bank or 
common stock, but every man be master of his own 
money; not that I altogether mislike banks, but 
they will hardly be brooked, in regard of certain 
suspicions. Let the state be answered some small 
matter for the license, and the rest left to the lender; 
for if the abatement be but small, it will no whit dis- 
courage the lender; for he, for example, that took 
before ten or nine in the hundred, will sooner de- 
scend to eight in the hundred, than give over his 
trade of usury, and go from certain gains to gains 
of hazard. Let these licensed lenders be in number 
indefinite, but restrained to certain principal cities 
and towns of merchandising; for then they will be 
hardly able to color other men's moneys in the 



i84 BACON'S ESSAYS 

country, so as the license of nine will not suck 
away the current rate of five; for no man will send 
his moneys far off, nor put them into unknown 
hands. 

If it be objected, that this doth in a sort author- 
ize usury, which before was in some places but 
permissive; the answer is, that it is better to miti- 
gate usury by declaration, than to suffer it to rage 
by connivance. 



XLII— OF YOUTH AND AGE 

A MAN that is young in years may be old in 
hours, if he have lost no time; but that happeneth 
rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, 
not so wise as the second; for there is a youth in 
thoughts as well as in ages; and yet the invention 
of young men is more lively than that of old, and 
imaginations stream into their minds better, and, as 
it were, more divinely. Natures that have much 
heat, and great and violent desires and perturba- 
tions, are not ripe for action till they have passed 
the meridian of their years: as it was with Julius 
Caesar and Septimius Severus; of the latter of whom 
it is said, ^'Juventutem egit erroribus, tmo jurorihus 
plenatn;" and yet he was the ablest emperor, al- 
most, of all the list; but reposed natures may do 
well in youth, as it is seen in Augustus Caesar, 
Cosmus Duke of Florence, Gaston de Foix, and 
others. On the other side, heat and vivacity in 
age is an excellent composition for business. Young 
men are fitter to invent than to judge, fitter for 
execution than for counsel, and fitter for new pro- 
jects than for settled business; for the experience 
of age, in things that fall within the compass of it, 
directeth them; but in new things abuseth them. 

185 



i86 BACON'S ESSAYS 

The errors of young men are the ruin of business; 
but the errors of aged men amount but to this, that 
more might have been done, or sooner. 

Young men, in the conduct and manage of ac- 
tions, embrace more than they can hold, stir more 
than they can quiet; fly to the end, without consid- 
eration of the means and degrees; pursue some few 
principles which they have chanced upon absurdly; 
care not to innovate, which draws unknown incon- 
veniences; use extreme remedies at first; and that, 
which doubleth all errors, will not acknowledge 
or retract them, like an unready horse, that will 
neither stop nor turn. Men of age object too 
much, consult too long, adventure too little, repent 
too soon, and seldom drive business home to the 
full period, but content themselves v/ith a mediocrity 
of success. Certainly, it is good to compound 
employments of both; for that will be good for the 
present, because the virtues of either age may cor- 
rect the defects of both; and good for succession, 
that young men may be learners, Vv'hile men in age 
are actors; and, lastly, good for externe accidents, 
because authority followeth old men, and favor and 
popularity youth; but, for the moral part, perhaps, 
youth will have the preeminence, as age hath for 
the politic. A certain rabbin, upon the text, "Your 
young men shall see visions, and your old men shall 
dream dreams," inferreth that young men are ad- 



OF YOUTH AND AGE 187 

mitted nearer to God than old, because vision is a 
clearer revelation than a dream; and, certainly, 
the more a man drinketh of the world, the more it 
intoxicateth; and age doth profit rather in the 
powers of understanding, than in the virtues of the 
will and affections. There be some have an over- 
early ripeness in their years, which fadeth betimes; 
these are, first, such as have brittle wits, the edge 
whereof is soon turned; such as was Hermogenes 
the rhetorician, whose books are exceedingly subtle; 
who afterwards waxed stupid. A second sort is of 
those that have some natural dispositions, which 
have better grace in youth than in age; such as is 
a fluent and luxuriant speech, which becomes youth 
well, but not age; so Tully saith of Hortensius: 
^^ Idem tnanebat, neque idem decebat." The third is of 
such as take too high a strain at the first, and are 
magnanimous more than tract of years can up- 
hold; as was Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith, 
in effect, ''Ultima primis cedebant." 



XLIII— OF BEAUTY 

Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set; and 
surely virtue is best in a body that is comely, though 
not of delicate features, and that hath rather dig- 
nity of presence than beauty of aspect; neither is it 
always most seen, that very beautiful persons are 
otherv^ise of great virtue; as if nature were rather 
busy not to err, than in labor to produce excellency; 
and therefore they prove accomplished, but not of 
great spirit, and study rather behavior than virtue. 
But this holds not always; for Augustus Caesar, 
Titus Vespasianus, Philip le Bel of France, Edward 
the Fourth of England, Alcibiades of Athens, Ismael 
the Sophy of Persia, were all high and great spirits, 
and yet the most beautiful men of their times. In 
beauty, that of favor is more than that of color; and 
that of decent and gracious motion, more than that 
of favor. That is the best part of beauty, which a 
picture can not express; no, nor the first sight of 
the life. There is no excellent beauty that hath 
not some strangeness in the proportion. A man 
can not tell whether Apelles, or Albert Durer, were 
the more trifler; whereof the one would make a 
personage by geometrical proportions; the other, 
by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make 



OFBEAUTY 189 

one excellent. Such personages, I think, would 
please nobody but the painter that made them: not 
but I think a painter may make a better face than 
ever was; but he must do it by a kind of felicity 
(as a musician that maketh an excellent air in music), 
and not by rule. A man shall see faces, that, if 
you examine them part by part, you shall find 
never a good, and yet altogether do well. If it 
be true that the principal part of beauty is in decent 
motion, certainly it is no marvel, though persons 
in years seem many times more amiable; " Pul- 
chrorurn aiitumnus pulcher;" for no youth can be 
comely but by pardon, and considering the youth 
as to make up the comeliness. Beauty is as sum- 
mer fruits, which are easy to corrupt, and can not 
last; and, for the most part, it makes a dissolute 
youth, and an age a little out of countenance; but 
yet certainly again, if it light well, it maketh virtues 
shine, and vices blush. 



XLIV— OF DEFORMITY 

■ Deformed persons are commonly even with 
nature; for, as nature hath done ill by them, so do 
they by nature, being for the most part (as the 
Scripture saith) "void of natural affection;" and 
so they have their revenge of nature. Certainly, 
there is a consent between the body and the mind, 
and where nature erreth in the one, she ventureth 
in the other: ^'Ubt peccat in uno, perichtatur in 
altero." But because there is in man an election, 
touching the frame of his mind, and a necessity in 
the frame of his body, the stars of natural inclination 
are sometimes obscured by the sun of discipline and 
virtue; therefore, it is good to consider of deformity, 
not as a sign which is more deceivable, but as a 
cause which seldom faileth of the effect. Whoso- 
ever hath any thing fixed in his person that doth 
induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in 
himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn; 
therefore, all deformed persons are extreme bold; 
first, as in their own defense, as being exposed to 
scorn, but, in process of time, by a general habit. 
Also, it stirreth in them industry, and especially 
of this kind, to watch and observe the weakness of 
others, that they may have somewhat to repay. 

190 



OF DEFORMITY 191 

Again, in their superiors, it quencheth jealousy 
towards them, as persons that they think they may 
at pleasure despise; and it layeth their competi- 
tors and emulators asleep, as never believing they 
should be in possibility of advancement till they 
see them in possession; so that upon the matter, in 
a great wit, deformity is an advantage to rising. 
Kings in ancient times (and at this present in some 
countries) were wont to put great trust in eunuchs, 
because they that are envious towards all are more 
obnoxious and officious towards one; but yet their 
trust towards them hath rather been as to good 
spials, and good whisperers, than good magistrates 
and officers; and much like is the reason of deformed 
persons. Still the ground is, they will, if they be 
of spirit, seek to free themselves from scorn, which 
must be either by virtue or malice; and, therefore, 
let it not be marveled, if sometimes they prove 
excellent persons; as was Agesilaus, Zanger, the 
son of Solyman, i5^sop, Gasca president of Peru; 
and Socrates may go likewise amongst them, with 
others. 



XLV— OF BUILDING 

Houses are built to live in, and not to look on, 
therefore, let use be preferred before uniformity, 
except where both may be had. Leave the goodly 
fabrics of houses, for beauty only, to the enchanted 
palaces of the poets, who build them with small 
cost. He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat, 
committeth himself to prison; neither do I reckon 
it an ill seat only where the air is unwholesome, 
but likewise where the air is unequal. As you shall 
see many fine seats set upon a knap of ground 
environed with higher hills round about it, whereby 
the heat of the sun is pent in, and the wind gather- 
eth as in troughs; so as you shall have, and that 
suddenly, as great diversity of heat and cold as if 
you dwelt in several places. Neither is it ill air 
only that maketh an ill seat; but ill ways, ill mar- 
kets, and, if you will consult with Momus, ill neigh- 
bors. I speak not of many more: want of water, 
want of wood, shade, and shelter, want of fruitfulness, 
and mixture of grounds of several natures; want 
of prospect, want of level grounds, want of places 
at some near distance for sports of hunting, hawk- 
ing, and races; too near the sea, too remote; having 
the commodity of navigable rivers, or the discom- 

192 



OF BUILDING 193 

modity of their overflowing; too far off from great 
cities, which may hinder business; or too near 
them, which lurcheth all provisions, and maketh 
every thing dear; where a man hath a great Hving 
laid together, and where he is scanted; all which, as 
it is impossible perhaps to find together, so it is good 
to know them, and think of them, that a man may 
take as many as he can; and if he have several 
dwellings, that he sort them so, that what he want- 
eth in the one he may find in the other. Lucullus 
answered Pompey well, who, when he saw his 
stately galleries and rooms so large and lightsome, 
in one of his houses, said, "Surely, an excellent 
place for summer, but how do you do in winter?" 
Lucullus answered, "Why, do you not think me 
as wise as some fowls are, that ever change their 
abode towards the winter?" 

To pass from the seat to the house itself, we 
will do as Cicero doth in the orator's art, who 
writes books De Oratore, and a book he entitles 
Orator; whereof the former delivers the precepts 
of the art, and the latter the perfection. We will 
therefore describe a princely palace, making a brief 
model thereof; for it is strange to see, now in Europe, 
such huge buildings as the Vatican and Escurial, 
and some others be, and yet scarce a very fair room 
in them. 

First, therefore, I say, you can not have a perfect 



194 BACON'S ESSAYS 

palace, except you have two several sides; a side 
for the banquet, as is spoken of in the Book of 
Esther, and a side for the household; the one for 
feasts and triumphs, and the other for dwelling. 
I understand both these sides to be not only returns, 
but parts of the front, and to be uniform without, 
though severally partitioned within; and to be on 
both sides of a great and stately tower in the midst 
of the front, that, as it were, joineth them together 
on either hand. I would have, on the side of the 
banquet in front, one only goodly room above stairs, 
of some forty foot high; and under it a room for a 
dressing or preparing place, at times of triumphs. 
On the other side, which is the household side, I 
wish it divided at the first into a hall and a chapel, 
(with a partition between), both of good state and 
bigness; and those not to go all the length, but to 
have at the further end a winter and a summer 
parlor, both fair; and under these rooms a fair and 
large cellar sunk under ground; and likewise some 
privy kitchens, with butteries, and pantries, and the 
like. As for the tower, I would have it two stories, 
of eighteen foot high apiece above the two wings; 
and a goodly leads upon the top, railed, with statues 
interposed; and the same tower to be divided into 
rooms, as shall be thought fit. The stairs likewise 
to the upper rooms, let them be upon a fair open 
newel, and finely railed in with images of wood 



OF BUILDING 195 

cast into a brass color, and a very fair landing-place 
at the top. But this to be, if you do not point any 
of the lower rooms for a dining-place of servants; 
for, otherwise, you shall have the servants' dinner 
after your own; for the steam of it will come up as 
in a tunnel. And so much for the front; only I 
understand the height of the first stairs to be sixteen 
foot, which is the height of the lower room. 

Beyond this front is there to be a fair court, but 
three sides of it of a far lower building than the 
front; and in all the four corners of that court fair 
stair-cases, cast into turrets on the outside, and not 
within the row of buildings themselves; but those 
towers are not to be of the height of the front, but 
rather proportionable to the lower building. Let 
the court not be paved, for that striketh up a great 
heat in summer, and much cold in winter; but only 
some side alleys with a cross, and the quarters to 
graze, being kept shorn, but not too near shorn. 
The row of return on the banquet side, let it be all 
stately galleries; in which galleries let there be three 
or five fine cupolas in the length of it, placed at 
equal distance, and fine colored windows of several 
works; on the household side, chambers of pres- 
ence and ordinary entertainments, with some bed- 
chambers; and let all three sides be a double house, 
without thorough lights on the sides, that you may 
have rooms from the sun, both for forenoon and 



196 BACON'S ESSAYS 

afternoon. Cast it, also, that you may have rooms 
both for summer and winter; shady for summer, 
and warm for winter. You shall have sometimes 
fair houses so full of glass, that one can not tell 
where to become to be out of the sun or cold. For 
imbowed windows, I hold them of good use; (in 
cities, indeed, upright do better, in respect of the 
uniformity towards the street;) for they be pretty 
retiring places for conference; and, besides, they 
keep both the wind and sun off; for that which 
would strike almost through the room doth scarce 
pass the window: but let them be but few, four 
in the court, on the sides only. 

Beyond this court, let there be an inward court, 
of the same square and height, which is to be en- 
vironed with the garden on all sides; and in the in- 
side, cloistered on all sides upon decent and beauti- 
ful arches, as high as the first story; on the under 
story towards the garden, let it be turned to grotto, 
or place of shade, or estivation; and only have 
opening and windows towards the garden, and 
be level upon the floor, no whit sunk under ground 
to avoid all dampishness; and let there be a foun- 
tain, or some fair work of statues in the midst of 
this court, and to be paved as the other court was. 
These buildings to be for privy lodgings on both 
sides, and the end for privy galleries; whereof you 
must foresee that one of them be for an infirmary, 



OF BUILDING 197 

if the prince or any special person should be sick, 
with chambers, bedchamber, anticamera, and re- 
camera, joining to it; this upon the second story. 
Upon the ground story, a fair gallery, open, upon 
pillars; and upon the third story, likewise, an open 
gallery upon pillars, to take the prospect and fresh- 
ness of the garden. At both corners of the further 
side, by way of return, let there be two delicate 
or rich cabinets, daintily paved, richly hanged, 
glazed with crystalline glass, and a rich cupola in 
the midst, and all other elegancy that can be thought 
upon. In the upper gallery, too, I wish that there 
may be, if the place will yield it, some fountains 
running in divers places from the wall, with some 
fine avoidances. And thus much for the model 
of the palace, save that you must have, before you 
come to the front, three courts: a green court plain, 
with a wall about it; a second court of the same, 
but more garnished with little turrets, or rather 
embellishments, upon the wall; and a third court, 
to make a square with the front, but not to be built, 
nor yet inclosed with a naked wall, but inclosed 
with terraces leaded aloft, and fairly garnished 
on the three sides, and cloistered on the inside 
with pillars, and not with arches below. As for 
offices, let them stand at distance, with some low 
galleries to pass from them to the palace itself. 



XLVI— OF GARDENS 

God Almighty first planted a garden; and, 
indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures; it is 
the greatest refreshment to the spirits of man; with- 
out which buildings and palaces are but gross 
handy-works; and a man shall ever see, that, when 
ages grow to civility and elegancy, men come to 
build stately, sooner than to garden finely; as if 
gardening were the greater perfection. I do hold 
it, in the royal ordering of gardens, there ought to 
be gardens for all the months in the year, in which, 
severally, things of beauty may be then in season. 
For December, and January, and the latter part of 
November, you must take such things as are green 
all winter: holly, ivy, bays, juniper, cypress-trees, 
yew, pineapple-trees; fir-trees, rosemary, lavender; 
periwinkle, the white, the purple, and the blue; 
germander, flags, orange-trees, lemon-trees, and 
myrtles, if they be stoved; and sweet marjoram, 
warm set. There followeth, for the latter part of 
January and February, the mezereon-tree, which 
then blossoms; crocus vernus, both the yellow and 
the gray; primroses, anemones, the early tulip, 
the hyacinthus orientalis, chamairis fritellaria. For 
March, there come violets, especially the single 



OF GARDENS 199 

blue, which are the earliest; the yellow daffodil, 
the daisy, the almond-tree in blossom, the peach- 
tree in blossom, the cornelian-tree in blossom, 
sweet-brier. In April, follow the double Vv^hite 
violet, the wall-flower, the stock gillyflower, the 
cowslip, flower-de-luces, and lilies of all natures; 
rosemary flowers, the tulip, the double peony, the 
pale daff^odil, the French honeysuckle, the cherry- 
tree in blossom, the damascene and plum-trees 
in blossom, the white thorn in leaf, the lilac-tree. 
In May and June come pinks of all sorts, especially 
the blush-pink; roses of all kinds, except the musk, 
which comes later; honeysuckles, strawberries, bug- 
loss, columbine, the French marigold, fios Africanus, 
cherry-tree in fruit, ribes, figs in fruit, rasps, vine- 
flowers, lavender in flowers, the sweet satyrian, 
with the white flower; herba muscaria, lilium con- 
vallium, the apple-tree in blossom. In July come 
gillyflowers of all varieties, musk-roses, the lime- 
tree in blossom, early pears, and plums in fruit, 
genitings, codlins. In August come plums of all 
sorts in fruit, pears, apricots, barberries, filberts, 
musk-melons, monks-hoods, of all colors. In Sep- 
tember come grapes, apples, poppies of all colors, 
peaches, melocotones, nectarines, cornelians, war- 
dens, quinces. In October, and the beginning of 
November, come services, medlars, bullaces, roses 
cut or removed to come late, hollyoaks, and such 



200 BACON'S ESSAYS 

like. These particulars are for the climate of 
London; but my meaning is perceived, that you 
may have ver perpetuum, as the place affords. 

And because the breath of flovv^ers is far sweeter 
in the air (where it comes and goes, like the war- 
bling of music), than in the hand, therefore nothing 
is more fit for that delight, than to know what be 
the flowers and plants that do best perfume the 
air, Roses, damask and red, are fast flowers of 
their smell, so that you may walk by a whole row 
of them, and find nothing of their sweetness; yea, 
though it be in a m.orning's dew. Bays, likewise, 
yield no smell as they grovv^, rosemary little, nor 
sweet marjoram; that which, above all others, yields 
the sweetest smell in the air, is the violet, especially 
the white double violet, which comes twice a year, 
about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew- 
tide. Next to that is the musk-rose; then the 
strawberry leaves dying, with a most excellent 
cordial smell; then the flower of the vines, it is a 
little dust like the dust of a bent, which grows upon 
the cluster in the first coming foith; then sweet- 
brier, then wall-flowers, which are very delightful 
to be set under a parlor or lower chamber window; 
then pinks and gillyflowers, specially the matted 
pink and clove gillyflower; then the flowers of the 
lime-tree; then the honeysuckles, so they be some- 
what afar off. Of bean-flowers I speak not, be- 



OF GARDENS 201 

cause they are field-flowers; but those which perfume 
the air most dehghtfully, not passed by as the rest, 
but being trodden upon and crushed, are three; 
that is, burnet, wild thyme, and water-mints; 
therefore you are to set whole alleys of them, to 
have the pleasure when you walk or tread. 

For gardens (speaking of those which are indeed 
prince-like, as we have done of buildings), the 
contents ought not well to be under thirty acres of 
ground, and to be divided into three parts; a green 
in the entrance, a heath, or desert, in the going 
forth, and the main garden in the midst, besides 
alleys on both sides; and I like well that four acres 
of ground be assigned to the green, six to the heath, 
four and four to either side, and twelve to the main 
garden. The green hath two pleasures: the one, 
because nothing is more pleasant to the eye than 
green grass kept finely shorn; the other because it 
will give you a fair alley in the midst, by which you 
may go in front upon a stately hedge, which is to 
inclose the garden. But because the alley will be 
long, and in great heat of the year, or day, you 
ought not to buy the shade in the garden by going 
in the sun through the green; therefore you are, 
of either side the green, to plant a covert alley, 
upon carpenter's work, about twelve foot in height, 
by which you may go in shade into the garden. 
As for the making of knots or figures, with divers 



202 BACON'S ESSAYS 

colored earths, that they may lie under the windows 
of the house on that side which the garden stands, 
they be but toys; you may see as good sights many 
times in tarts. The garden is best to be square, 
encompassed on all the four sides with a stately 
arched hedge: the arches to be upon pillars of car- 
penter's work, of some ten foot high, and six foot 
broad, and the spaces between of the same dimen- 
sion with the breadth of the arch. Over the arches 
let there be an entire hedge of some four foot high, 
framed also upon carpenter's work; and upon the 
upper hedge, over every arch a little turret, with a 
belly enough to receive a cage of birds; and over 
every space between the arches some other little 
figure, with broad plates of round colored glass gilt, 
for the sun to play upon; but this hedge I intend 
to be raised upon a bank, not steep, but gently 
slope, of some six foot, set all with flowers. Also, 
I understand that this square of the garden should 
not be the whole breadth of the ground, but to leave 
on either side ground enough for diversity of side 
alleys, unto which the two covert alleys of the green 
may deliver you; but there must be no alleys with 
hedges at either end of this great enclosure; not at 
the hither end, for letting your prospect upon this 
fair hedge from the green; nor at the further end for 
letting your prospect from the hedge through the 
arches upon the heath. 



OF GARDENS 203 

For the ordering of the ground within the great 
hedge, I leave it to variety of device; advising, 
nevertheless, that whatsoever form you cast it into 
first, it be not too bushy, or full of work; wherein 
I, for my part, do not like images cut out in juni- 
per or other garden stuff; they be for children. 
Little low hedges, round like welts, with some 
pretty pyramids, I like well; and in some places 
fair columns, upon frames of carpenter's work. I 
would also have the alleys spacious and fair. You 
may have closer alleys upon the side grounds, but 
none in the main garden. I wish, also, in the very 
middle, a fair mount, with three ascents and alleys, 
enough for four to walk abreast; which I would 
have to be perfect circles, without any bulwarks or 
embossments; and the whole mount to be thirty 
foot high, and some fine banqueting-house, with 
some chimneys neatly cast, and without too much 
glass. 

For fountains, they are a great beauty and re- 
freshment; but pools mar all, and make the garden 
unwholesome, and full of flies and frogs. Fountains 
I intend to be of two natures; the one that sprin- 
kleth or spouteth water; the other, a fair receipt of 
water, of some thirty or forty foot square, but with- 
out fish, or slime, or mud. For the first, the orna- 
ments of images, gilt or of marble, which are in 
use, do well; but the main matter is so to convey 



204 BACON'S ESSAYS 

the water, as it never stay, either in the bowls or in 
the cistern; that the water be never by rest dis- 
colored, green, or red, or the like, or gather any 
mossiness or putrefaction; besides that, it is to be 
cleansed every day by the hand; also, some steps 
up to it, and some fine pavement about it, doth well. 
As for the other kind of fountain, which we may 
call a bathing-pool, it may admit much curiosity 
and beauty, wherewith we will not trouble our- 
selves: as, that the bottom be finely paved, and 
with images; the sides likewise; and, withal, em- 
bellished with colored glass, and such things of 
lustre; encompassed, also, with fine rails of low 
statues. But the main point is the same that we 
mentioned in the former kind of fountain; which 
is, that the water be in perpetual motion, fed by a 
water higher than the pool, and delivered into it by 
fair spouts, and then discharged away under ground, 
by some equality of bores, that it stay little; and 
for fine devices, of arching water without spilling, 
and making it rise in several forms (of feathers, 
drinking-glasses, canopies, and the like), they be 
pretty things to look on, but nothing to health and 
sweetness. 

For the heath, which was the third part of our 
plot, I wish it to be framed as much as may be to 
a natural wildness. Trees I would have none in it, 
but some thickets made only of sweet-brier and 



OF GARDENS 205 

honeysuckle, and some wild vine amongst; and the 
ground set with violets, strawberries, and primroses; 
for these are sweet, and prosper in the shade, and 
these to be in the heath here and there, not in any 
order. I like also little heaps, in the nature of 
molehills (such as are in wild heaths), to be set, 
some with wild thyme, some with pinks, some with 
germander, that gives a good flower to the eye; 
some with periwinkle, some with violets, some with 
strawberries, some with cowslips, some with daisies, 
some with red roses, some with lilium convallium, 
some with sweet-williams red, some with bear's- 
foot, and the like low flowers, being withal sweet 
and sightly; part of which heaps to be with stan- 
dards of little bushes pricked upon their top, and 
part without; the standards to be roses, juniper, 
holly, barberries (but here and there, because of 
the smell of their blossom), red currants, gooseber- 
ries, rosemary, bays, sweet-brier, and such like; but 
these standards to be kept with cutting, that they 
grow not out of course 

For the side grounds, you are to fill them with 
variety of alleys, private, to give a full shade; some 
of them wheresoever the sun be. You are to frame 
some of them likewise for shelter, that when the 
wind blows sharp, you may walk as in a gallery: 
and those alleys must be likewise hedged at both 
ends, to keep out the wind; and these closer alleys 



2o6 BACON'S ESSAYS 

must be ever finely gravelled, and no grass, because 
of going wet. In many of these alleys, likewise, you 
are to set fruit-trees of all sorts, as well upon the 
walls as in ranges; and this should be generally 
observed, that the borders wherein you plant your 
fruit-trees be fair, and large, and low, and not steep; 
and set with fine flowers, but thin and sparingly, 
lest they deceive the trees. At the end of both the 
side grounds I would have a mount of some pretty 
height, leaving the wall of the inclosure breast high, 
to look abroad into the fields. 

For the main garden, I do not deny but there 
should be some fair alleys ranged on both sides with 
fruit-trees, and some pretty tufts of fruit-trees and 
arbors with seats, set in some decent order; but 
these to be by no means set too thick, but to leave 
the main garden so as it be not close, but the air 
open and free. For as for shade, I would have you 
rest upon the alleys of the side grounds, there to 
walk, if you be disposed, in the heat of the year or 
day; but to make accoun*- that the main garden is 
for the more temperate parts of the year, and in the 
heat of summer for the morning and the evening or 
overcast days. 

For aviaries, I like them not, except they be of 
that largeness as they may be turfed, and have living 
plants and bushes set in them; that the birds may 
have more scope and natural nestling, and that no 



OF GARDENS 207 

foulness appear in the floor of the aviary. So I 
have made a platform of a princely garden, partly by 
precept, partly by drav^ing; not a model, but some 
general lines of it; and in this I have spared for no 
cost. But it is nothing for great princes, that, for 
the most part, taking advice with workmen, with no 
less cost set their things together, and sometimes add 
statues and such things for state and magnificence, 
but nothing to the true pleasure of a garden. 



XLVII— OF NEGOTIATING 

It is generally better to deal by speech than by 
letter; and by the mediation of a third, than by a 
man's self. Letters are good, when a man would 
draw an answer by letter back again; or when it 
may serve for a man's justification afterwards to 
produce his own letter, or where it may be danger 
to be interrupted or heard by pieces. To deal in 
person is good, when a man's face breedeth regard, 
as commonly with inferiors; or in tender cases, 
where a man's eye upon the countenance of him with 
whom he speaketh, may give him a direction how far 
to go; and, generally, where a man will reserve to 
himself liberty, either to disavow or to expound. In 
choice of instruments, it is better to choose men of 
a plainer sort, that are like to do that that is com- 
mitted to them, and to report back again faithfully 
the success, than those that are cunning to contrive 
out of other men's business somewhat to grace them- 
selves, and will help the matter in report, for satis- 
faction sake. Use also such persons as affect the 
business wherein they are employed, for that quick- 
eneth much; and such as are fit for the matter, 
as bold men for expostulation, fairspoken men for 

208 



OF NEGOTIATING 209 

persuasion, crafty men for inquiry and observation, 
froward and absurd men for business that doth not 
well bear out itself. Use also such as have been 
liicky and prevailed before in things v^herein you 
have employed them; for that breeds confidence, 
and they will strive to maintain their prescription. 
It is better to sound a person with whom one deals 
afar off, than to fall upon the point at first, except 
you mean to surprise him by some short question. 
It is better dealing with men in appetite, than with 
those that are where they would be. If a man deal 
with another upon conditions, the start of first per- 
formance is all; which a man can not reasonably 
demand, except either the nature of the thing be 
such, which must go before; or else a man can per- 
suade the other party, that he shall still need him in 
some other thing; or else that he be counted the 
honester man. All practice is to discover, or to 
work. Men discover themselves in trust, in passion, 
at unawares; and, of necessity, when they would 
have somewhat done, and can not find an apt pretext. 
If you would work any man, you must either know 
his nature and fashions, and so lead him; or his 
ends, and so persuade him; or his weakness and 
disadvantages, and so awe him; or those that have 
interest in him, and so govern him. In dealing with 
cunning persons, we must ever consider their ends. 



210 BACON'S ESSAYS 

to interpret their speeches; and it is good to say 
little to them, and that which they least look for. 
In all negotiations of difficulty, a man may not look 
to sow and reap at once; but must prepare business, 
and so ripen it by degrees. 



XLVIII— OF FOLLOWERS AND 
FRIENDS 

Costly followers are not to be liked, lest, while 
a man maketh his train longer, he make his wings 
shorter. I reckon to be costly, not them alone 
which charge the purse, but which are wearisome 
and importune in suits. Ordinary followers ought 
to challenge no higher conditions than countenance, 
recommendation, and protection from wrongs. Fac- 
tious followers are worse to be liked, which fol- 
low not upon affection to him with whom they 
range themselves, but upon discontentment con- 
ceived against some other; whereupon commonly 
ensueth that ill intelligence, that we many times see 
between great personages. Likewise glorious fol- 
lowers, who make themselves as trumpets of the 
commendations of those they follow, are full of in- 
convenience, for they taint business through want 
of secrecy; and they export honor from a man, and 
make him a return in envy. There is a kind of fol- 
lowers, likewise, which are dangerous, being indeed 
espials; which inquire the secrets of the house, and 
bear tales of them to others; yet such men, many 
times, are in great favor, for they are officious, and 
commonly exchange tales. The following, by cer- 

211 



212 BACON'S ESSAYS 

tain estates of men, answerable to that which a 
great person himself professeth (as of soldiers to 
him that hath been employed in the wars, and the 
like), hath ever been a thing civil and well taken 
even in monarchies, so it be without too much pomp 
or popularity. But the most honorable kind of fol- 
lowing, is to be followed as one that apprehendeth 
to advance virtue and desert in all sorts of persons; 
and yet, where there is no eminent odds in suffi- 
ciency, it is better to take with the more passable, 
than with the more able; and, besides, to speak 
truth in base times, active men are of more use than 
virtuous. It is true, that, in government, it is good 
to use men of one rank equally; for to countenance 
some extraordinarily, is to make them insolent, and 
the rest discontent, because they may claim a due: 
but, contrariwise, in favor, to use men with much 
difference and election is good : for it maketh the 
persons preferred more thankful, and the rest more 
officious, because all is of favor. It is good discre- 
tion not to make too much of any man at the first, 
because one can not hold out that proportion. To 
be governed, as we call it, by one, is not safe, for it 
shows softness, and gives a freedom to scandal and 
disreputation; for those that would not censure, or 
speak ill of a man immediately, will talk more boldly 
of those that are so great with them, and thereby 
wound their honor; yet to be distracted with many 



OF FOLLOWERS AND FRIENDS 213 

is worse, for it makes men to be of the last impres- 
sion, and full of change. To take advice of some 
few friends is ever honorable; for lookers-on many 
times see more than gamesters, and the vale best 
discovereth the hill. There is little friendship in the 
world, and least of all between equals, which was 
wont to be magnified. That that is, is between 
superior and inferior, whose fortunes may compre- 
hend the one the other. 



XLIX— OF SUITORS 

Many ill matters and projects are undertaken; 
and private suits do putrify the public good. Many 
good matters are undertaken with bad minds; I 
mean not only corrupt minds, but crafty minds, that 
intend not performance. Some embrace suits, which 
never mean to deal effectually in them; but if they 
see there may be life in the matter, by some other 
mean they will be content to win a thank, or take a 
second reward, or, at least, to make use, in the 
mean time, of the suitor's hopes. Some take hold 
of suits only for an occasion to cross some other, 
or to make an information, whereof they could not 
otherwise have apt pretext, without care what be- 
come of the suit when that turn is served; or, gen- 
erally, to make other men's business a kind of enter- 
tainment to bring in their own: nay, some undertake 
suits with a full purpose to let them fall, to the end 
to gratify the adverse party, or competitor. Surely, 
there is in some sort a right in every suit; either a 
right of equity, if it be a suit of controversy, or a right 
of desert, if it be a suit of petition. If affection lead 
a man to favor the wrong side in justice, let him 
rather use his countenance to compound the matter 
than to carry it. If affection lead a man to favor 

214 



OF SUITORS 215 

the less worthy in desert, let him do it without de- 
praving or disabling the better deserver. In suits 
which a man doth not well understand, it is good to 
refer them to some friend of trust and judgment, 
that may report whether he may deal in them with 
honor; but let him choose well his referendaries, 
for else he may be led by the nose. Suitors are so 
distasted with delays and abuses, that plain dealing 
in denying to deal in suits at first, and reporting the 
success barely, and in challenging no more thanks 
than one hath deserved, is grown not only honorable, 
but also gracious. In suits of favor, the first coming 
ought to take little place; so far forth consideration 
may be had of his trust, that if intelligence of the 
matter could not otherwise have been had but by 
him, advantage be not taken of the note, but the 
party left to his otsher means, and in some sort recom- 
pensed for his discovery. To be ignorant of the 
value of a suit is simplicity; as well as to be ignor- 
ant of the right thereof, is want of conscience. Se- 
crecy in suits is a great mean of obtaining; for 
voicing them to be in forwardness may discourage 
some kind of suitors, but doth quicken and awake 
others. But timing of the suit is the principal; 
timing, I say, not only in respect of the person that 
should grant it, but in respect of those which are 
like to cross it. Let a man, in the choice of his 
mean, rather choose the fittest mean, than the greatest 



2i6 BACON'S ESSAYS 

mean; and rather them that deal in certain things, 
than those that are general. The reparation of a 
denial is sometimes equal to the first grant, if a 
man show himself neither dejected nor discontented. 
"Intquum petas, ut cequwn feras,'' is a good rule, 
where a man hath strength of favor; but otherwise 
a man were better rise in his suit; for he that would 
have ventured at first to have lost the suitor, will 
not, in the conclusion, lose both the suitor and his 
own former favor. Nothing is thought so easy a 
request to a great person as his letter: and yet if it 
be not in a good cause, it is so much out of his 
reputation. There are no worse instruments than 
these general contrivers of suits; for they are 
but a kind of poison and infection to public pro- 
ceedings. 



L— OF STUDIES 

Studies serve for delight, for ornament, and for 
ability. Their chief use for delight, is in private- 
ness and retiring; for ornament, is in discourse; 
and for ability, is in the judgment and disposition 
of business; for expert men can execute, and per- 
haps judge of particulars one by one; but the gen- 
eral counsels, and the plots and marshaling of 
affairs, come best from those that are learned. To 
spend too much time in studies, is sloth; to use 
them too much for ornament, is affectation; to make 
judgment wholly by their rules, is the humor of a 
scholar. They perfect nature, and are perfected 
by experience; for natural abilities are like natural 
plants, that need pruning by study; and studies 
themselves to give forth directions too much at 
large, except they be bounded in by experience. 
Crafty men contemn studies, simple men admire 
them, and wise men use them; for they teach not 
their own use; but that is a wisdom without them 
and above them, won by observation. Read not to 
contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for 
granted, nor to find talk and discourse, but to weigh 
and consider. Some books are to be tasted, others 
to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and 

217 



2i8 BACON'S ESSAYS 

digested; that is, some books are to be read only 
in parts; others to be read, but not curiously; 
and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence 
and attention. Some books also may be read by 
deputy, and extracts made of them by others; but 
that would be only in the less important arguments 
and the meaner sort of books; else distilled books 
are, like common distilled waters, flashy things. 
Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready 
man; and writing an exact man; and, therefore, if 
a man write little, he had need have a great mem- 
ory; if he confer little, he had need have a present 
wit; and if he read little, he had need have much 
cunning, to seem to know that he doth not. Histories 
make men wise; poets, witty; the mathematics, 
subtle; natural philosophy, deep; moral, grave; 
logic and rhetoric, able to contend: " Aheunt studia 
in mores;'' nay, there is no stand or impediment in 
the wit, but may be wrought out by fit studies. Like 
as diseases of the body may have appropriate exer- 
cises, bowling is good for the stone and reins, shoot- 
ing for the lungs and breast, gentle walking for the 
stomach, riding for the head and the like; so, if a 
man's wit be wandering, let him study the mathe- 
matics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called 
away never so little, he must begin again; if his wit 
be not apt to distinguish or find difference, let him 



OF STUDIES 219 

study the schoolmen, for they are Cymini sectores. 
If he be not apt to beat over matters, and to call up 
one thing to prove and illustrate another, let him 
study the lawyers' cases; so every defect of the mind 
may have a special receipt. 



LI—OF FACTION 

Many have an opinion not wise, that for a prince 
to govern his estate, or for a great person to govern 
his proceedings, according to the respect of factions, 
is a principal part of policy; whereas, contrariwise, 
the chiefest wisdom is, either in ordering those 
things which are general, and wherein men of sev- 
eral factions do nevertheless agree, or in dealing 
with correspondence to particular persons, one by 
one; but I say not, that the consideration of fac- 
tions is to be neglected. Mean men in their rising 
must adhere; but great men, that have strength in 
themselves, were better to maintain themselves in- 
different and neutral; yet, even in beginners, to 
adhere so moderately, as he be a man of the one 
faction, which is most passable with the other, com- 
monly giveth best way. The lower and weaker 
faction is the firmer in conjunction; and it is often 
seen, that a few that are stiff, do tire out a great 
number that are more moderate. When one of the 
factions is extinguished, the remaining subdivideth; 
as the faction between Lucullus and the rest of the 
nobles of the senate (which they called "opti- 
mates"), held out a while against the faction of 
Pompey and Caesar; but when the senate's au- 



OF FACTION 221 

thority was pulled down, Caesar and Pompey soon 
after brake. The faction or party of Antonius and 
Octavianus Caesar, against Brutus and Cassius, held 
out likewise for a time; but when Brutus and Cas- 
sius were overthrown, then soon after Antonius 
and Octavianus brake and subdivided. These ex- 
amples are of wars, but the same holdeth in private 
factions; and, therefore, those that are seconds in 
factions do many times, when the faction subdivideth, 
prove principals; but many times also they prove 
ciphers, and cashiered, for many a man's strength is 
in opposition; and when that faileth, he groweth 
out of use. It is commonly seen, that men once 
placed, take in with the contrary faction to that by 
which they enter; thinking, belike, that they have 
the first sure, and now are ready for a new pur- 
chase. The traitor in faction lightly goeth away 
with it; for when matters have stuck long in bal- 
ancing, the winning of some one man casteth them, 
and he getteth all the thanks. The even carriage 
between two factions proceedeth not always of mod- 
eration, but of a trueness to a man's self, with end to 
make use of both. Certainly, in Italy, they hold it 
a little suspect in popes, when they have often in 
their mouth, Padre commune; and take it to be a 
sign of one that meaneth to refer all to the great- 
ness of his own house. Kings had need beware 
how they side themselves, and make themselves as 



222 BACON'S ESSAYS 

of a faction or party; for leagues within the state 
are ever pernicious to monarchies; for they raise an 
obligation paramount to obligation of sovereignty, 
and make the king "tanquam unus ex -nobis," as 
was to be seen in the League of France. When 
factions are carried too high and too violently, it is 
a sign of weakness in princes, and much to the 
prejudice both of their authority and business. The 
motions of factions under kings, ought to be like the 
motions (as the astronomers speak) of the inferior 
orbs, which may have their proper motions, but yet 
still are quietly carried by the higher motion of 
primum mobile. 



LII — OF CEREMONIES AND RE- 
SPECTS 

He that is only real, had need have exceeding 
great parts of virtue; as the stone had need to be 
rich that is set without foil; but if a man mark it 
well, it is in praise and commendation of men, as 
it is in gettings and gains; for the proverb is true, 
that "Light gains make heavy purses;" for light 
gains come thick, whereas great come but now and 
then. So it is true, that small matters win great 
commendation, because they are continually in use 
and in note; whereas the occasion of any great 
virtue cometh but on festivals; therefore it doth 
much add to a man's reputation, and is (as Queen 
Isabella said) like perpetual letters commendatory, 
to have good forms. To attain them, it almost 
sufficeth not to despise them; for so shall a man 
observe them in others; and let him trust himself 
with the rest; for if he labor too much to express 
them, he shall lose their grace, which is to be natural 
and unaffected. Some men's behavior is like a 
verse, wherein every syllable is measured; how can 
a man comprehend great matters, that breaketh his 
mind too much to small observations ^ Not to use 
ceremonies at all, is to teach others not to use them 

223 



224 BACON'S ESSAYS 

again, and so diminisheth respect to himself; 
especially they be not to be omitted to strangers and 
formal natures; but the dwelling upon them, and 
exalting them above the moon, is not only tedious, 
but doth diminish the faith and credit of him that 
speaks; and, certainly, there is a kind of conveying 
of effectual and imprinting passages amongst com- 
pliments, w^hich is of singular use, if a man can hit 
upon it. Amongst a man's peers, a man shall be 
sure of familiarity, and, therefore, it is good a little 
to keep state; amongst a man's inferiors, one shall 
be sure of reverence, and therefore it is good a little 
to be familiar. He that is too much in any thing, 
so that he giveth another occasion of satiety, maketh 
himself cheap. To apply one's self to others, is 
good, so it be with demonstration that a man doth 
it upon regard, and not upon facility. It is a good 
precept, generally in seconding another, yet to add 
somewhat of one's own; as, if you will grant his 
opinion, let it be with some distinction; if you will 
follow his motion, let it be with condition; if you 
allow his counsel, let it be with alleging further rea- 
son. Men had need beware how they be too perfect 
in compliments; for be they never so sufficient other- 
wise, their enviers will be sure to give them that 
attribute to the disadvantage of their greater vir- 
tues. It is loss, also, in business, to be too full of 
respects, or to be too curious in observing times and 



OF CEREMONIES AND RESPECTS 225 

opportunities. Solomon saith, "He that consider- 
eth the wind shall not sow, and he that looketh to 
the clouds shall not reap." A wise man will make 
more opportunities than he finds. Men's behavior 
should be like their apparel, not too strait or point 
device, but free for exercise or motion. 



LIII— OF PRAISE 

Praise is the reflection of virtue; but it is glass, 
or body, which giveth the reflection. If it be from 
the common people, it is commonly false and naught, 
and rather followeth vain persons than virtuous; for 
the common people understand not many excellent 
virtues. The lowest virtues draw praise from them, 
the middle virtues work in them astonishment or 
admiration, but of the highest virtues they have no 
sense or perceiving at all; but shows and species 
vtrtutibus similes^ serve best with them. Cer- 
tainly, fame is like a river, that beareth up things 
light and swollen, and drowns things weighty and 
solid; but if persons of quality and judgment con- 
cur, then it is (as the Scripture saith), ''Nomen 
honum instar unguentt fragrantis:" it filleth all 
round about, and will not easily away; for the odors 
of ointments are more durable than those of flowers. 
There be so many false points of praise, that a man 
may justly hold it a suspect. Some praises proceed 
merely of flattery; and if he be an ordinary flatterer, 
he will have certain common attributes, which may 
serve every man; if he be a cunning flatterer, he 
will follow the arch-flatterer, which is a man's self, 
and wherein a man thinketh best of himself, therein 

226 



OF PRAISE 227 

the flatterer will uphold him most. But if he be an 
impudent flatterer, look wherein a man is conscious 
to himself that he is most defective, and is most out 
of countenance in himself, that will the flatterer en- 
title him to, perforce, spreta conscientia. Some praises 
come of good wishes and respects, which is a form 
due in civility to kings and great persons, laudando 
prcBcipere; when, by telling men what they are, 
they represent to them what they should be; some 
men are praised maliciously to their hurt, thereby 
to stir envy and jealousy towards them: " Pessi- 
mum genus inimicorurn lauJantium;" insomuch 
as it was a proverb amongst the Grecians, that 
"he that was praised to his hurt, should have a 
push rise upon his nose;" as we say that a blister 
will rise upon one's tongue that tells a lie; cer- 
tainly, moderate praise, used with opportunity, and 
not vulgar, is that which doth the good. Solomon 
saith: "He that praiseth his friend aloud, rising 
early, it shall be to him no better than a curse." 
Too much magnifying of man or matter doth irri- 
tate contradiction, and procure envy and scorn. 
To praise a man's self can not be decent, except it 
be in rare cases; but to praise a man's oflnice or 
profession, he may do it with good grace, and with 
a kind of magnanimity. The cardinals of Rome, 
which are theologues, and friars, and schoolmen, 
have a phrase of notable contempt and scorn towards 



228 BACON'S ESSAYS 

civil business; for they call all temporal business of 
wars, embassages, judicature, and other employ- 
ments, sbirrerie, which is under-sherifFries, as if they 
were but matters for under-sheriffs and catchpoles; 
though many times those under-sherifFries do more 
good than their high speculations. Saint Paul, when 
he boasts of himself, he doth oft interlace, "I speak 
like a fool:" but speaking of his calling, he saith, 
" Magnificabo apostolatum meum." 



LIV— OF VAINGLORY 

It was prettily devised of ^^sop, the fly sat upon 
the axle-tree of the chariot-wheel, and said, "What 
a dust do I raise!" So are there some vain persons, 
that, whatsoever goeth alone, or moveth upon greater 
means, if they have never so little hand in it, they 
think it is they that carry it. They that are glorious, 
must needs be factious; for all bravery stands upon 
comparisons. They must needs be violent, to make 
good their own vaunts; neither can they be secret, 
and therefore not effectual; but, according to the 
French proverb, " Beaucoup de bruit, peu de fruit;'' 
— "much bruit, little fruit." Yet, certainly, there 
is use of this quality in civil affairs: where there is 
an opinion and fame to be created, either of virtue 
or greatness, these men are good trumpeters. Again, 
as Titus Livius noteth, in the case of Antiochus and 
the ^tolians, there are sometimes great effects of 
cross lies; as if a man that negotiates between two 
princes, to draw them to join in a war against the 
third, doth extol the forces of either of them above 
measure, the one to the other; and sometimes he 
that deals between man and man, raiseth his own 
credit with both, by pretending greater interest than 
he hath in either; and in these, and the like kinds, 

229 



230 BACON'S ESSAYS 

it often falls out, that somewhat is produced of 
nothing; for lies are sufficient to breed opinion, 
and opinion brings on substance. In military com- 
manders and soldiers, vainglory is an essential point; 
for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage 
sharpeneth another. In cases of great enterprise 
upon charge and adventure, a composition of glo- 
rious natures doth put life into business; and those 
that are of solid and sober natures, have more of the 
ballast than of the sail. In fame of learning, the 
flight w^ill be slow without some feathers of osten- 
tation: "Qui de contemnenda gloria libros scrihunt, 
nomen suum tnscribunt.*' Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, 
were men full of ostentation: certainly, vainglory 
helpeth to perpetuate a man's memory; and virtue 
was never so beholden to human nature, as it received 
its due at the second hand. Neither had the fame 
of Cicero, Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne her age 
so well if it had not been joined with some vanity 
in themselves; like unto varnish, that makes ceilings 
not only shine, but last. But all this while, when 
I speak of vainglory, I mean not of that property 
that Tacitus doth attribute to Mucianus, " Omnium^ 
qucB dixerat freceatque, arte quad am ostentator;" 
for that proceeds not of vanity, but of natural mag- 
nanimity and discretion; and, in some persons, 
is not only comely, but gracious; for excusations, 
cessions, modesty itself, well governed, are but arts 



OF VAINGLORY 231 

of ostentation; and amongst those arts there is none 
better than that which PHnius Secundus speaketh 
of, which is to be Hberal of praise and commenda- 
tion to others, in that wherein a man's self hath any 
perfection. For, saith Pliny, very wittily, " In com- 
mending another, you do yourself right;" for he 
that you commend is either superior to you in that 
you commend, or inferior: if he be inferior, if he be 
to be commended, you much more; if he be superior, 
if he be not to be commended, you much less." 
Glorious men are the scorn of wise men, the admira- 
tion of fools, the idols of parasites, and the slaves of 
their own vaunts. 



LV— OF HONOR AND REPUTATION 

The winning of honor is but the reveahng of a 
man's virtue and worth without disadvantage; for 
some in their actions do woo and affect honor and 
reputation; which sort of men are commonly much 
talked of, but inwardly little admired; and some, 
contrariwise, darken their virtue in the show of it, 
so as they be undervalued in opinion. If a man 
perform that which hath not been attempted before, 
or attempted and given over, or hath been achieved, 
but not with so good circumstance, he shall purchase 
more honor than by affecting a matter of greater 
difficulty or virtue, wherein he is but a follower. 
If a man so temper his actions, as in some one of 
them he doth content every faction or combination 
of people, the music will be the fuller. A man is 
an ill husband of his honor that entereth into any 
action, the failing wherein may disgrace him more 
than the carrying of it through can honor him. 
Honor that is gained and broken upon another 
hath the quickest reflection, like diamonds cut with 
facets; and therefore let a man contend to excel any 
competitors of his in honor, in outshooting them, if 
he can, in their own bow. Discreet followers and 
servants help much to reputation: "Omnis jama a 

232 



OF HONOR AND REPUTATION 233 

doynesticis emanat." Envy, which is the canker of 
honor, is best extinguished by declaring a man's 
self in his ends, rather to seek merit than fame; and 
by attributing a man's successes rather to Divine 
providence and fehcity, than to his own virtue or 
policy. The true marshaling of the degrees of sov- 
ereign honor are these. In the first place are condi- 
tores imperiorum, founders of states and common- 
wealths; such as were Romulus, Cyrus, Caesar, 
Ottoman, Ismael: in the second place are legisla- 
tores, lawgivers, which are also called second founders, 
or perpetui principesy because they govern by their 
ordinances after they are gone; such were Lycurgus, 
Solon, Justinian, Edgar, Alphonsus of Castile, the 
Wise, that made the Siete Partidas: in the third 
place are liberatores, or salvatores, such as compound 
the long miseries of civil wars, or deliver their coun- 
tries from servitude of strangers or tyrants, as 
Augustus Caesar, Vespasianus, Aurelianus, Theo- 
doricus. King Henry the Seventh of England, King 
Henry the Fourth of France: in the fourth place 
are propagatores, or propugnatores imperii, such as 
in honorable wars enlarge their territories, or make 
noble defense against invaders: and, in the last place 
are patres patrice, which reign justly, and make 
the times good wherein they live; both which last 
kinds need no examples, they are in such number. 
Degrees of honor in subjects are, first, participes 



234 BACON'S ESSAYS 

curarum, those upon whom princes do discharge 
the greatest weight of their affairs, their right hands, 
as we call them; the next are duces belli, great leaders, 
such as are princes' lieutenants, and do them notable 
services in the wars; the third are gratiosi, favorites, 
such as exceed not this scantling, to be solace to the 
sovereign, and harmless to the people; and the 
fourth, negotiis pares, such as have great places under 
princes, and execute their places with sufficiency. 
There is an honor, likewise, which may be ranked 
amongst the greatest, which happeneth rarely; that 
is, of such as sacrifice themselves to death or danger 
for the good of their country; as was M. Regulus, 
and the two Decii. 



LVI— OF JUDICATURE 

Judges ought to remember that their office is 
jus d I cere, and not jus dare; to interpret law, and 
not to make law, or give law; else will it be like the 
authority claimed by the Church of Rome, which, 
under pretext of exposition of Scripture, doth not 
stick to add and alter, and to pronounce that 
which they do not find, and, by show of antiquity, 
to introduce novelty. Judges ought to be more 
learned than witty, more reverend than plausible, 
and more advised than confident. Above all things, 
integrity is their portion and proper virtue. " Cursed 
(saith the law) is he that removeth the landmark." 
The mislayer of a mere stone is to blame; but it is 
the unjust judge that is the capital remover of land- 
marks, when he defineth amiss of lands and property. 
One foul sentence doth more hurt than many foul 
examples; for these do but corrupt the stream, the 
other corrupteth the fountain: so saith Solomon, 
" Fons turhatus et vena corrupta est Justus cadens in 
causa sua coram adversaria/^ The office of judges 
may have reference unto the parties that sue, unto 
the advocates that plead, unto the clerks and min- 
isters of justice underneath them, and to the sovereign 
or state above them. 

235 



236 BACON'S ESSAYS 

First, for the causes or parties that sue. "There 
be (saith the Scripture) that turn judgment into 
wormwood;" and surely there be, also, that turn 
it into vinegar; for injustice maketh it bitter, and 
delays make it sour. The principal duty of a judge 
is to suppress force and fraud; whereof force is the 
more pernicious when it is open, and fraud when it 
is close and disguised. Add thereto contentious 
suits, which ought to be spewed out, as the surfeit 
of courts. A judge ought to prepare his way to a 
just sentence, as God useth to prepare his way, by 
raising valleys and taking down hills; so when there 
appeareth on either side a high hand, violent pros- 
ecution, cunning advantages taken, combination, 
power, great counsel, then is the virtue of a judge 
seen to make inequality equal, that he may plant 
his judgment as upon an even ground. "Qui for- 
titer emungity elicit sanguinem;'^ and where the 
wine-press is hard wrought, it yields a harsh wine, 
that tastes of the grape-stone. Judges must beware 
of hard constructions and strained inferences; for 
there is no worse torture than the torture of laws. 
Especially in case of laws penal, they ought to have 
care that that which was meant for terror be not 
turned into rigor; and that they bring not upon the 
people that shower whereof the Scripture speaketh, 
" Pluet super eos laqueos/' for penal laws pressed, 
are a shower of snares upon the people. Therefore 



OF JUDICATURE 237 

let penal laws, if they have been sleepers of long, or 
if they be grown unfit for the present time, be by 
wise judges confined in the execution: ''Judtcis 
ofjicium est, ut res, ita tempora rerum,''^ etc. In 
causes of life and death, judges ought (as far as the 
law permitteth) in justice to remember mercy, and 
to cast a severe eye upon the example, but a merci- 
ful eye upon the person. 

Secondly, for the advocates and counsel that plead. 
Patience and gravity of hearing is an essential part 
of justice, and an overspeaking judge is no well- 
tuned cymbal. It is no grace to a judge first to 
find that which he might have heard in due time 
from the bar; or to show quickness of conceit in 
cutting off evidence or counsel too short, or to pre- 
vent information by questions, though pertinent. 
The parts of a judge in hearing are four: to direct 
the evidence; to moderate length, repetition, or 
impertinency of speech; to recapitulate, select, and 
collate the material points of that which hath been 
said; and to give the rule or sentence. Whatsoever 
is above these is too much, and proceedeth either of 
glory, and willingness to speak, or of impatience to 
hear, or of shortness of memory, or of want of a 
staid and equal attention. It is a strange thing to 
see that the boldness of advocates should prevail 
with judges; whereas, they should imitate God in 
whose seat they sit, who represseth the presump- 



238 BACON'S ESSAYS 

tuous, and giveth grace to the modest; but it is 
more strange, that judges should have noted favo- 
rites, which can not but cause multiplication of fees, 
and suspicion of by-ways. There is due from the 
judge to the advocate some commendation and 
gracing, where causes are well handled and fair 
pleaded, especially towards the side which obtaineth 
not; for that upholds in the client the reputation of 
his counsel, and beats down in him the conceit of 
his cause. There is likewise due to the public a civil 
reprehension of advocates, where there appeareth 
cunning counsel, gross neglect, slight information, 
indiscreet pressing, or an over-bold defence; and 
let not the counsel at the bar chop with the judge, 
nor wind himself into the handling of the cause 
anew after the judge hath declared his sentence; 
but, on the other side, let not the judge meet the 
cause half-way, nor give occasion to the party to say, 
his counsel or proofs were not heard. 

Thirdly, for that that concerns clerks and minis- 
ters. The place of justice is a hallowed place; and, 
therefore, not only the bench, but the foot-pace 
and precincts, and purprise thereof, ought to be 
preserved without scandal and corruption; for, cer- 
tainly, "Grapes (as the Scripture saith) will not be 
gathered of thorns or thistles;" neither can justice 
yield her fruit with sweetness amongst the briers 
and brambles of catching and polling clerks and 



OF JUDICATURE 239 

ministers. The attendance of courts is subject to 
four bad instruments: first, certain persons that are 
sowers of suits, which make the court swell, and the 
country pine: the second sort is of those that engage 
courts in quarrels of jurisdiction, and are not truly 
amici curia, but parasiti curia:, in puffing a court 
up beyond her bounds for their own scraps and 
advantage: the third sort is of those that may be 
accounted the left hands of courts; persons that 
are full of nimble and sinister tricks and shifts, 
whereby they pervert the plain and direct courses 
of courts, and bring justice into oblique lines and 
labyrinths: and the fourth is the poller and exacter 
of fees; which justifies the common resemblance of 
the courts of justice to the bush, whereunto while 
the sheep flies for defense in weather, he is sure 
to lose part of his fleece. On the other side, an 
ancient clerk, skilful in precedents, wary in pro- 
ceeding, and understanding in the business of the 
court, is an excellent finger of a court, and doth 
many times point the way to the judge himself. 

Fourthly, for that which may concern the sover- 
eign and estate. Judges ought, above all, to remem- 
ber the conclusion of the Roman Twelve Tables, 
"Salus populi suprema lex-'' and to know that 
laws, except they be in order to that end, are but 
things captious, and oracles not well inspired; 
therefore it is a happy thing in a state, when kings 



240 BACON'S ESSAYS 

and states do often consult with judges; and again, 
when judges do often consult with the king and 
state: the one, when there is matter of law inter- 
venient in business of state; the other, when there 
is some consideration of state intervenient in mat- 
ter of law; for many times the things deduced to 
judgment may be meum and tuum, when the reason 
and consequence thereof may trench to point of 
estate. I call matter of estate, not only the parts 
of sovereignty, but whatsoever introduceth any great 
alteration, or dangerous precedent, or concerneth 
manifestly any great portion of people; and let no 
man weakly conceive, that just laws and true policy 
have any antipathy, for they are like the spirits and 
sinews, that one moves with the other. Let judges 
also remember, that Solomon's throne was supported 
by lions on both sides; let them be lions, but yet 
lions under the throne, being circumspect that they 
do not check or oppose any points of sovereignty. 
Let not judges also be so ignorant of their own right, 
as to think there is not left to them, as a principal 
part of their office, a wise use and application of 
laws; for they may remember what the apostle saith 
of a greater law than theirs: "Nos scimus quia lex 
bona est, modo quis ca utatur legitime." 



LVII— OF ANGER 

To seek to extinguish anger utterly is but a 
bravery of the Stoics. We have better oracles: 
"Be angry, but sin not; let not the sun go down 
upon your anger." Anger must be limited and 
confined, both in race and in time. We will first 
speak how the natural inclination and habit, "to 
be angry," may be attempered and calmed; secondly, 
how the particular motions of anger may be re- 
pressed, or, at least, refrained from doing mischief; 
thirdly, how to raise anger, or appease anger in 
another. 

For the first, there is no other way but to medi- 
tate and ruminate well upon the effects of anger, 
how it troubles man's life; and the best time to do 
this is, to look back upon anger when the fit is 
thoroughly over. Seneca saith well, "that anger 
is like ruin, which breaks itself upon that it falls." 
The Scripture exhorteth us "to possess our souls in 
patience;" whosoever is out of patience, is out of 
possession of his soul. Men must not turn bees: — 

"animasque in vulnere ponunt." 

Anger is certainly a kind of baseness; as it appears 
well in the weakness of those subjects in whom it 

241 



242 BACON'S ESSAYS 

reigns, children, women, old folks, sick folks. Only 
men must beware that they carry their anger rather 
with scorn than with fear; so that they may seem 
rather to be above the injury than below it; which 
is a thing easily done, if a man will give law to 
himself in it. 

For the second point, the causes and motives of 
anger are chiefly three. First, to be too sensible of 
hurt, for no man is angry that feels not himself hurt; 
and therefore tender and delicate persons must needs 
be oft angry, they have so many things to trouble 
them, which more robust natures have little sense 
of: the next is, the apprehension and construction 
of the injury offered, to be, in the circumstances 
thereof, full of contempt; for contempt is that which 
putteth an edge upon anger, as much, or more, than 
the hurt itself; and therefore, when men are inge- 
nious in picking out circumstances of contempt, they 
do kindle their anger much: lastly, opinion of the 
touch of a man's reputation doth multiply and 
sharpen anger; wherein the remedy is, that a man 
should have, as Gonsalvo was wont to say, " Telam 
honoris crassiorem." But in all refrainings of 
anger, it is the best remedy to win time, and to 
make a man's self believe that the opportunity of 
his revenge is not yet come; but that he foresees 
a time for it, and so to still himself in the mean 
time, and reserve it. 



O F A N G E R 243 

To contain anger from mischief, though it take 
hold of a man, there be two things whereof you 
must have special caution: the one, of extreme bit- 
terness of words, especially if they be aculeate and 
proper, for communia maledicta are nothing so 
much; and, again, that in anger a man reveal no 
secrets, for that makes him not fit for society: the 
other, that you do not peremptorily break off in any 
business in a fit of anger; but, howsoever you show 
bitterness, do not act any thing that is not revocable. 

For raising and appeasing anger in another, it is 
done chiefly by choosing of times when men are 
frowardest and worst disposed to incense them; 
again, by gathering (as was touched before) all that 
you can find out to aggravate the contempt: and 
the two remedies are by the contraries; the former 
to take good times, when first to relate to a man an 
angry business, for the first impression is much; 
and the other is, to sever, as much as may be, the 
construction of the injury from the point of contempt; 
imputing it to misunderstanding, fear, passion, or 
what you will. 



LVIII— OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS 

Solomon saith, "There is no new thing upon 
the earth;" so that as Plato had an imagination 
that all knowledge was but remembrance, so Solo- 
mon giveth his sentence, "That all novelty is but 
oblivion;" whereby you may see, that the river of 
Lethe runneth as well above ground as below. 
There is an abstruse astrologer that saith, if it were 
not for two things that are constant (the one is, 
that the fixed stars ever stand at like distance one 
from another, and never come nearer together, nor 
go further asunder; the other, that the diurnal 
motion perpetually keepeth time), no individual 
would last one moment; certain it is, that the mat- 
ter is in a perpetual flux, and never at a stay. The 
great winding-sheets that bury all things in obliv- 
ion, are two, — deluges and earthquakes. As for 
conflagrations and great droughts, they do not 
merely dispeople, but destroy. Phaeton's car went 
but a day; and the three years' drought in the time 
of Elias, was but particular, and left people alive. 
As for the great burnings by lightnings, which are 
often in the West Indies, they are but narrow; 
but in the other two destructions, by deluge and 
earthquake, it is further to be noted, that the rem- 

244 



OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS 245 

nant of people which happen to be reserved, are 
commonly ignorant and mountainous people, that 
can give no account of the time past; so that the 
oblivion is all one, as if none had been left. If 
you consider well of the people of the West Indies, 
it is very probable that they are a newer, or a younger 
people than the people of the old world; and it is 
much more likely that the destruction that hath 
heretofore been there, was not by earthquakes, 
(as the Egyptian priest told Solon, concerning the 
Island of Atlantis, that it was swallowed by an 
earthquake), but rather that it was desolated by a 
particular deluge, for earthquakes are seldom in 
those parts; but, on the other side, they have such 
pouring rivers, as the rivers of Asia, and Africa, 
and Europe, are but brooks to them. Their Andes, 
likewise, or mountains, are far higher than those 
with us; whereby it seems, that the remnants of 
generations of men were in such a particular deluge 
saved. As for the observation that Machiavel hath, 
that the jealousy of sects doth much extinguish 
the memory of things, traducing Gregory the Great, 
that he did what in him lay to extinguish all heathen 
antiquities, I do not find that those zeals do any 
great effects, nor last long; as it appeared in the 
succession of Sabinian, who did revive the former 
antiquities. 

The vicissitude, or mutations, in the superior 



246 BACON'S ESSAYS 

globe, are no fit matter for this present argument. 
It may be, Plato's great year, if the world should 
last so long, would have some effect, not in renew- 
ing the state of like individuals (for that is the 
fume of those that conceive the celestial bodies 
have more accurate influences upon these things 
below, than indeed they have), but in gross. Com- 
ets, out of question, have likewise power and effect 
over the gross and mass of things; but they are 
rather gazed, and waited upon in their journey, 
than wisely observed in their effects, especially in 
their respective effects; that is, what kind of comet 
for magnitude, color, version of the beams, placing 
in the region of heaven, or lasting, produceth what 
kind of effects. 

There is a toy, which I have heard, and I would 
not have it given over, but waited upon a little. 
They say it is observed in the Low Countries (I 
know not in what part), that every five and thirty 
years the same kind and suit of years and weather 
comes about again; as great frosts, great wet, great 
droughts, warm winters, summers with little heat, 
and the like; and they call it the prime. It is a 
thing I do the rather mention, because, computing 
backwards, I have found some concurrence. 

But to leave these points of nature, and to come 
to men. The greatest vicissitude of things amongst 
men, is the vicissitude of sects and religions; for 



OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS 247 

those orbs rule in men's minds most. The true 
religion is built upon the rock; the rest are tossed 
upon the waves of time. To speak, therefore, of 
the causes of new sects, and to give some counsel 
concerning them, as far as the weakness of human 
judgment can give stay to so great revolutions. 

When the religion formerly received is rent by 
discords, and when the holiness of the professors of 
religion is decayed and full of scandal, and, withal, 
the times be stupid, ignorant, and barbarous, you 
may doubt the springing up of a new sect; if then, 
also, there should arise any extravagant and strange 
spirit to make himself author thereof; all which 
points held when Mahomet published his law. If a 
new sect have not two properties, fear it not, for it 
will not spread. The one is the supplanting or the 
opposing of authority established, for nothing is more 
popular than that; the other is, the giving license 
to pleasures and a voluptuous life; for as for specu- 
lative heresies (such as were in ancient times the 
Arians, and now the Arminians), though they 
work mightily upon men's wits, yet they do not 
produce any great alterations in states, except it be 
by the help of civil occasions. There be three 
manner of plantations of new sects: by the power 
of signs and miracles; by the eloquence and wisdom 
of speech and persuasion; and by the sword. For 
martyrdoms, I reckon them amongst miracles, be- 



248 BACON'S ESSAYS 

cause they seem to exceed the strength of human 
nature; and I may do the Hke of superlative and 
admirable holiness of life. Surely, there is no better 
way to stop the rising of new sects and schisms, 
than to reform abuses; to compound the smaller 
differences; to proceed mildly, and not with sanguin- 
ary persecutions; and rather to take off the prin- 
cipal authors, by winning and advancing them, than 
to enrage them by violence and bitterness. 

The changes and vicissitude in wars are many, 
but chiefly in three things: in the seats or stages of 
the war, in the weapons, and in the manner of the 
conduct. Wars, in ancient time, seemed more to 
move from east to west; for the Persians, Assyrians, 
Arabians, Tartars (which were the invaders), were 
all eastern people. It is true the Gauls were western; 
but we read but of two incursions of theirs, the one 
to Gallo-Graecia, the other to Rome: but east and 
west have no certain points of heaven; and no more 
have the wars, either from the east or west, any 
certainty of observation; but north and south are 
fixed; and it hath seldom or never been seen that 
the far southern people have invaded the northern, 
but contrariwise: whereby it is manifest that the 
northern tract of the world is in nature the more 
martial region, be it in respect of the stars of that 
hemisphere, or of the great continents that are upon 
the north; whereas, the south part, for aught that is 



OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS 249 

known, is almost all sea; or (which is most apparent) 
of the cold of the northern parts, which is that which 
without aid of discipline, doth make the bodies 
hardest, and the courage warmest. 

Upon the breaking and shivering of a great state 
and empire, you may be sure to have wars; for 
great empires, while they stand, do enervate and 
destroy the forces of the natives which they have 
subdued, resting upon their own protecting forces; 
and then, when they fail also, all goes to ruin, and 
they become a prey. So was it in the decay of the 
Roman empire, and likewise in the empire of Al- 
maigne, after Charles the Great, every bird taking 
a feather, and were not unlike to befall to Spain, if 
it should break. The great accessions and unions 
of kingdoms do likewise stir up wars; for when a 
state grows to an over-power, it is like a great flood, 
that will be sure to overflow, as it hath been seen 
in the states of Rome, Turkey, Spain, and others. 
Look when the world hath fewest barbarous people, 
but such as commonly will not marry or generate, 
except they know means to live (as it is almost 
everywhere at this day, except Tartary), there is no 
danger of inundations of people; but when there be 
great shoals of people, which go on to populate, 
without foreseeing means of life and sustenation, 
it is of necessity that once in an age or two they 
discharge a portion of their people upon other na- 



250 BACON'S ESSAYS 

tions, which the ancient northern people were wont 
to do by lot; casting lots what part should stay at 
home, and what should seek their fortunes. When 
a warlike state grows soft and effeminate, they may 
be sure of a war, for commonly such states are 
grown rich in the time of their degenerating; and 
so the prey inviteth, and their decay in valor en- 
courageth a war. 

As for the weapons, it hardly falleth under rule 
and observation, yet we see even they have returns 
and vicissitudes; for certain it is that ordnance was 
known in the city of the Oxidraces, in India, and 
was that which the Macedonians called thunder 
and lightning, and magic; and it is well known 
that the use of ordnance hath been in China above 
two thousand years. The conditions of weapons, 
and their improvements are, first, the fetching afar 
off, for that outruns the danger, as it is seen in 
ordnance and muskets; secondly, the strength of 
the percussion, wherein, likewise, ordnance do ex- 
ceed all arietations, and ancient inventions; the 
third is, the commodious use of them, as that they 
may serve in all weathers, that the carriage may be 
light and manageable, and the like. 

For the conduct of the war: at the first, men 
rested extremely upon number; they did put the 
wars likewise upon main force and valor, pointing 
days for pitched fields, and so trying it out upon 



OF VICISSITUDE OF THINGS 251 

an even match; and they were more ignorant in 
ranging and arraying their battles. After they 
grew to rest upon number, rather competent than 
vast, they grew to advantages of place, cunning 
diversions, and the Hke, and they grew more skilful 
in the ordering of their battles. 

In the youth of a state, arms do flourish; in the 
middle age of a state, learning; and then both of 
them together for a time; in the declining age of a 
state, mechanical arts and merchandise. Learning 
hath its infancy when it is but beginning, and 
almost childish; then its youth, when it is luxuriant 
and juvenile; then its strength of years, when it is 
solid and reduced; and, lastly, its old age, when it 
waxeth dry and exhaust. But it is not good to look 
too long upon these turning wheels of vicissitude, 
lest we become giddy; as for the philology of them, 
that is but a circle of tales, and therefore not fit for 
this writing. 



Appendix to Essays 

I— A FRAGMENT OF AN ESSAY OF 
FAME 

The poets make fame a monster; they describe 
her in part finely and elegantly, and in part gravely 
and sententiously; they say, Look, how many feath- 
ers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath, so 
many tongues, so many voices, she pricks up so 
many ears! 

This is a flourish: there follow excellent parables; 
as that she gathereth strength in going; that she 
goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in 
the clouds; that in the daytime she sitteth in a watch- 
tower, and flieth most by night; that she mingleth 
things done with things not done; and that she is 
a terror to great cities; but that which passeth 
all the rest is, they do recount that the Earth, mother 
of the giants that made war against Jupiter, and 
were by him destroyed, thereupon in anger brought 
forth Fame; for certain it is, that rebels, figured by 
the giants, and seditious fames and libels, are but 
brothers and sisters, masculine and feminine. But 
now, if a man can tame this monster, and bring 

253 



254 BACON'S ESSAYS 

her to feed at the hand and govern her, and with 
her fly other ravening fowl, and kill them, it is some- 
what worth; but we are infected with the style of 
the poets. To speak now in a sad and serious 
manner, there is not in all the politics a place less 
handled, and more worthy to be handled, than this 
of fame. We will, therefore, speak of these points. 
What are false fames, and what are true fames, 
and how they may be best discerned; how fames 
may be sown and raised; how they may be spread 
and multiplied; and how they may be checked and 
lay dead; and other things concerning the nature 
of fame. Fame is of that force, as there is scarcely 
any great action wherein it hath not a great part, 
especially in the war. Mucianus undid Vitellius by 
a fame that he scattered, that Vitellius had in pur- 
pose to remove the legions of Syria into Germany, 
and the legions of Germany into Syria; whereupon 
the legions of Syria were infinitely inflamed. Julius 
Caesar took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his 
industry and preparations by a fame that he cun- 
ningly gave out, how Caesar's own soldiers loved him 
not; and being wearied with the wars, and laden 
with the spoils of Gaul, would forsake him as soon 
as he came into Italy. Livia settled all things for 
the succession of her son Tiberius, by continually 
giving out that her husband Augustus was upon 
recovery and amendment; and it is a usual thing 



OF AN ESSAY OF FAME 255 

with the bashaws to conceal the death of the Grand 
Turk from the janizaries and men of war, to save 
the sacking of Constantinople, and other towns, as 
their manner is. Themistocles made Xerxes, king 
of Persia, post apace out of Graecia, by giving out 
that the Grecians had a purpose to break his bridge 
of ships which he had made athwart Hellespont. 
There be a thousand such like examples, and the 
more they are, the less they need to be repeated, be- 
cause a man meeteth with them everywhere; there- 
fore, let all wise governors have as great a watch 
and care over fames, as they have of the actions and 
designs themselves. 



II_OF A KING 

1. A KING is a mortal God on earth, unto whom 
the Hving God hath lent his own name as a great 
honor; but withal told him, he should die like a 
man, lest he should be proud and flatter himself, 
that God hath, with His name, imparted unto him 
His nature also. 

2. Of all kind of men, God is the least beholden 
unto them; for He doth most for them, and they do, 
ordinarily, least for Him. 

3. A king that would not feel his crown too heavy 
for him, must wear it every day; but if he think it 
too light, he knoweth not of what metal it is made. 

4. He must make religion the rule of govern- 
ment, and not to balance the scale; for he that cast- 
eth in religion only to make the scales even, his own 
weight is contained in those characters: ''Mene, 
mene^ tekel, upharsin: He is found too light, his 
kingdom shall be taken from him." 

5. And that king that holds not religion the best 
reason of state, is void of all piety and justice, the 
supporters of a king. 

6. He must be able to give counsel himself, but 
not rely thereupon; for though happy events justify 
their counsels, yet it is better that the evil event of 

256 



OF A KING 257 

good advice be rather imputed to a subject than a 
sovereign. 

7. He is a fountain of honor, v^hich should not 
run with a waste-pipe, lest the courtiers sell the 
water, and then, as Papists say of their holy wells, 
it loses the virtue. 

8. He is the life of the law, not only as he is Lex 
loquens himself, but because he animateth the dead 
letter, making it active towards all his subjects 
pramio et poena. 

9. A wise king must do less in altering his laws 
than he may; for new government is ever dangerous. 
It being true in the body politic, as in the corporal, 
that omnis suhita immutatio est periculosa; and 
though it be for the better, yet it is not without 
a fearful apprehension; for he that changeth the 
fundamental laws of a kingdom, thinketh there is 
no good title to a crown, but by conquest. 

10. A king that setteth to sale seats of justice, 
oppresseth the people; for he teacheth his judges to 
sell justice; and pretio parata pretio venditur justitia. 

11. Bounty and magnificence are virtues very 
regal, but a prodigal king is nearer a tyrant than a 
parsimonious; for store at home draweth not his 
contemplations abroad, but want supplieth itself of 
what is next, and many times the next way. A 
king therein must be wise, and know what he may 
justly do. 



258 BACON'S ESSAYS 

12. That king which is not feared, is not loved; 
and he that is well seen in his craft, must as well 
study to be feared as loved; yet not loved for fear, 
but feared for love. 

13. Therefore, as he must always resemble 
Him whose great name he beareth, and that as in 
manifesting the sweet influence of His mercy or the 
severe stroke of His justice sometimes, so in this not 
to suffer a man of death to live; for, besides that the 
land doth mourn, the restraint of justice toward 
sin doth more retard the affection of love, than the 
extent of mercy doth inflame it; and sure, where 
love is [ill] bestowed, fear is quite lost. 

14. His greatest enemies are his flatterers; for 
though they ever speak on his side, yet their words 
still make against him. 

15. The love which a king oweth to a weal public 
should not be overstrained to any one particular; 
yet that his more especial favor do reflect upon 
some worthy ones, is somewhat necessary, because 
there are few of that capacity. 

16. He must have a special care of five things, 
if he would not have his crown to be but to him 
infelix f elicit as. 

First, that simulata sanctitas be not in the church; 
for that is duplex iniquitas. 

Secondly, that inutilis cequitas sit not in the 
chancery; for that is inepta misericordia. 



OF A KING 259 

Thirdly, that utilis intquitas keep not the ex- 
chequer; for that is crudele latrocintum. 

Fourthly, that fidelis temeritas be not his general; 
for that will bring but seram poenitentiam. 

Fifthly, that tnfiJelis prudentia be not his secre- 
tary; for that is anguis sub viridi herha. 

To conclude: as he is of the greatest power, so 
he is subject to the greatest cares, made the servant 
of his people, or else he were without a calling at 
all. 

He, then, that honoreth him not is next an atheist, 
wanting the fear of God in his heart. 



III_ON DEATH 

1. I HAVE often thought upon death, and I find 
it the least of all evils. All that which is past is as 
a dream; and he that hopes or depends upon time 
coming, dreams waking. So much of our life as 
we have discovered is already dead; and all those 
hours which we share, even from the breasts of our 
mothers, until we return to our grandmother the 
earth, are part of our dying days, whereof even 
this is one, and those that succeed are of the same 
nature, for we die daily; and, as others have given 
place to us, so we must, in the end, give way to others. 

2. Physicians, in the name of death, include all 
sorrow, anguish, disease, calamity, or whatsoever 
can fall in the life of man, either grievous or un- 
welcome. But these things are familiar unto us, 
and we suffer them every hour; therefore we die 
daily, and I am older since I affirmed it. 

3. I know many wise men that fear to die, for 
the change is bitter, and flesh would refuse to prove 
it; besides, the expectation brings terror, and that 
exceeds the evil. But I do not believe that any 
man fears to be dead, but only the stroke of death; 
and such are my hopes, that if Heaven be pleased, 
and nature renew but my lease for twenty-one years 

260 



ON DEATH 261 

more without asking longer days, I shall be strong 
enough to acknowledge without mourning, that I 
was begotten mortal. Virtue walks not in the high- 
way, though she go per alta; this is strength and 
the blood to virtue, to contemn things that be de- 
sired, and to neglect that which is feared. 

4. Why should man be in love with his fetters, 
though of gold .? Art thou drowned in security ? 
Then I say thou art perfectly dead. For though 
thou movest, yet thy soul is buried within thee, 
and thy good angel either forsakes his guard, or 
sleeps. There is nothing under Heaven, saving a 
true friend (who can not be counted within the 
number of movables), unto which my heart doth 
lean. And this dear freedom hath begotten me 
this peace, that I mourn not for that end which 
must be, nor spend one wish to have one minute 
added to the uncertain date of my years. It was 
no mean apprehension of Lucian, who says of 
Menippus, that in his travels through hell, he knew 
not the kings of the earth from other men but only 
by their louder cryings and tears, which were fos- 
tered in them through the remorseful memory of 
the good days they had seen, and the fruitful hav- 
ings which they so unwillingly left behind them. 
He that was well seated, looked back at his portion, 
and was loath to forsake his farm; and others, 
either minding marriages, pleasures, profit, or 



262 BACON'S ESSAYS 

preferment, desired to be excused from death's 
banquet. They had made an appointment with 
earth, looking at the blessings, not the hand that 
enlarged them, forgetting how unclothedly they 
came hither, or with what naked ornaments they 
were arrayed. 

5. But were we servants of the precept given, 
and observers of the heathens' rule, Memento moriy 
and not become benighted with this seeming feli- 
city, we should enjoy it as men prepared to lose, 
and not wind up our thoughts upon so perishing a 
fortune. He that is not slackly strong (as the 
servants of pleasure), how can he be found unready 
to quit the vail and false visage of his perfection .? 
The soul having shaken off her flesh, doth then set 
up for herself, and contemning things that are under, 
shows what finger hath enforced her; for the souls 
of idiots are of the same piece with those of states- 
men, but now and then nature is at a fault, and 
this good guest of ours takes soil in an imperfect 
body, and so is slackened from showing her wonders, 
like an excellent musician, which can not utter him- 
self upon a defective instrument. 

6. But see how I am swerved, and lose my 
course, touching at the soul that doth least hold 
action with death, who hath the surest property in 
this frail act; his style is the end of all flesh, and 
the beginning of incorruption. 



ON DEATH 263 

This ruler of monuments leads men, for the most 
part, out of this world with their heels forward, in 
token that he is contrary to life, which being ob- 
tained, sends men headlong into this wretched 
theater, where, being arrived, their first language 
is that of mourning. Nor, in my own thoughts, can 
I compare men more fitly to any thing than to the 
Indian fig-tree, which, being ripened to his full 
height, is said to decline his branches down to the 
earth, whereof she conceives again, and they be- 
come roots in their own stock. 

So man, having derived his being from the earth, 
first lives the life of a tree, drawing his nourish- 
ment as a plant, and made ripe for death, he tends 
downwards, and is sown again in his m.other the earth, 
where he perisheth not, but expects a quickening. 

7. So we see death exempts not a man from 
being, but only presents an alteration; yet there are 
some men (I think) that stand otherwise persuaded. 
Death finds not a worse friend than an alderman, 
to whose door I never knew him welcome; but he 
is an importunate guest, and will not be said nay. 

And though they themselves shall aflRrm that 
they are not within, yet the answer will not be taken; 
and that which heightens their fear is, that they 
know they are in danger to forfeit their flesh, but 
are not wise of the payment-day, which sickly 
uncertainty is the occasion that (for the most part) 



264 BACON'S ESSAYS 

they step out of this world unfurnished for their 
general account, and, being all unprovided, desire 
yet to hold their gravity, preparing their souls to 
answer in scarlet. 

Thus I gather, that death is unagreeable to most 
citizens, because they commonly die intestate; this 
being a rule, that when their will is made, they 
think themselves nearer a grave than before. Now 
they, out of the wisdom of thousands, think to 
scare destiny, from which there is no appeal, by 
not making a will, or to live longer by protestation 
of their unwillingness to die. They are, for the 
most part, well made in this world (accounting their 
treasure by legions, as men do devils). Their 
fortune looks towards them, and they are willing 
to anchor at it, and desire (if it be possible) to put 
the evil day far off from them, and to adjourn their 
ungrateful and killing period. 

No, these are not the men which have bespoken 
death, or whose looks are assured to entertain a 
thought of him. 

8. Death arrives gracious only to such as sit in 
darkness, or lie heavy burdened with grief and 
irons; to the poor Christian, that sits bound in the 
galley; to despairful widows, pensive prisoners, and 
deposed kings; to them whose fortune runs back, 
and whose spirits mutiny: unto such, death is a re- 
deemer, and the grave a place for retiredness and rest. 



ON DEATH 265 

These wait upon the shore of death, and waft 
unto him to draw near, wishing above all others to 
see his star, that they might be led to his place; 
wooing the remorseless sisters to wind down the 
watch of their life, and to break them off before the 
hour. 

9. But death is a doleful messenger to a usurer, 
and fate untimely cuts their thread; for it is never 
mentioned by him, but when rumors of war and 
civil tumults put him in mind thereof. 

And when many hands are armed, and the peace 
of a city in disorder, and the foot of the common 
soldiers sounds an alarm on his stairs, then perhaps 
such a one (broken in thoughts of his moneys abroad, 
and cursing the monuments of coin which are in 
his house) can be content to think of death, and 
(being hasty of perdition) will perhaps hang himself, 
lest his throat should be cut; provided that he may 
do it in his study, surrounded with wealth, to which 
his eye sends a faint and languishing salute, even 
upon the turning off; remembering always, that he 
have time and liberty, by writing, to depute him- 
self as his own heir. 

For that is a great peace to his end, and recon- 
ciles him wonderfully upon the point. 

10. Herein we all dally with ourselves, and are 
without proof of necessity. I am not of those, that 
dare promise to pine away myself in vainglory, and 



266 BACON'S ESSAYS 

I hold such to be but feat boldness, and them that 
dare commit it, to be vain. Yet, for my part, I 
think nature should do me great v/rong, if I should 
be so long in dying, as I was in being born. 

To speak truth, no man knows the lists of his 
own patience, nor can divine how able he shall be 
in his sufferings, till the storm come (the perfectest 
virtue being tried in action); but I would (out of a 
care to do the best business well) ever keep a guard, 
and stand upon keeping faith and a good conscience. 

II. And if wishes might find place, I would die 
together, and not my mind often, and my body 
once; that is, I would prepare for the messengers 
of death, sickness, and affliction, and not wait long, 
or be attempted by the violence of pain. 

Herein I do not profess myself a Stoic, to hold 
grief no evil, but opinion, and a thing indifferent. 

But I consent with Caesar, that the suddenest 
passage is easiest, and there is nothing more awak- 
ens our resolve and readiness to die than the quieted 
conscience, strengthened with opinion that we 
shall be well spoken of upon earth by those that 
are just, and of the family of virtue; the opposite 
whereof is a fury to man, and makes even life 
unsweet. 

Therefore, what is more heavy than evil fame 
deserved } Or, likewise, who can see worse days, 



ON DEATH 267 

than he that, yet living, doth follow at the funerals 
of his own reputation ? 

I have laid up many hopes, that I am privileged 
from that kind of mourning, and could wish the like 
peace to all those with whom I wage love. 

12. I might say much of the commodities that 
death can sell a man; but, briefly, death is a friend 
of ours, and he that is not ready to entertain him, 
is not at home. Whilst I am, my ambition is not 
to foreflow the tide; I have but so to make my 
interest of it as I may account for it; I would wish 
nothing but what might better my days, nor desire 
any greater place than the front of good opinion. 
I make not love to the continuance of days, but to 
the goodness of them; nor wish to die, but refer 
myself to my hour, which the great Dispenser of all 
things hath appointed me; yet, as I am frail, and 
suffered for the first fault, were it given me to choose, 
I should not be earnest to see the evening of my 
age; that extremity, of itself, being a disease, and a 
mere return into infancy; so that, if perpetuity of 
life might be given me, I should think what the 
Greek poet said; "Such an age is a mortal evil." 
And since I must needs be dead, I require it may 
not be done before mine enemies, that I be not 
stript before I be cold; but before my friends. The 
night is even now: but that name is lost; it is not 



268 BACON'S ESSAYS 

now late, but early. Mine eyes begin to discharge 
their watch, and compound with this fleshly weak- 
ness for a time of perpetual rest; and I shall pres- 
ently be as happy for a few hours, as I had died 
the first hour I was born. 



PRINTED BY R. R. DONNELLEY 
AND SONS COMPANY, AT THE 
LAKESIDE PRESS, CHICAGO, ILL. 



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